St Vincent's Hospital
Improving Healthcare at St Vincent's
St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne delivers compassionate, professional care and we continually pursue excellence in meeting the needs of people in our community through pioneering new medical procedures and by providing basic health checks for those who are marginalised. Since 1955, the Collier Charitable Fund has generously granted over $850,000, playing a vital role in enabling St Vincent’s to deliver some of this vital healthcare to our patients. Key areas that the Collier Charitable Fund has supported include: Cancer Care, Aged Care, Emergency, Cardiology, to name a few.
Many people diagnosed with cancer will require some form of chemotherapy, radiation or biologic therapy; or a combination of these treatments. Typically, the most effective cancer treatments are toxic to bone marrow, which is essential for recovery. To help patients cope with the treatment, and to aid their recovery, stem cells are extracted and stored using a centrifuge machine. These cells are then re-injected into patients after their chemotherapy to boost their bone marrow level. The Collier Charitable Fund provided a particularly generous grant which enabled the purchase of two new Stem Cell Centrifuge Machines.
‘These machines have been in regular use since their installation, performing stem cell collections for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma. The outcomes for our patients have noticeably improved as the stem cell collections are of a higher quality and much quicker, taking two days instead of the previous three days. This is more convenient for patients. Once a patient is connected to the machine and a stem cell collection procedure starts it cannot be interrupted. Treatment delays can be life threatening for some patients,’ said Jan Chapple, Cancer Centre’s Nurse Unit Manager.
Unlike the older stem cell machine which was noisy, large and difficult to manoeuvre; these machines are quieter for the patients, more compact and lighter, which is much appreciated by the Cancer Centre staff.
We are extremely grateful for the significant support from the Collier Charitable Fund that has enabled many patients to continue to receive this potentially life-saving treatment.