Project Manager for the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre, Greg Pearl, gave us a detailed report on progress so far. The centre, designed by architects Billard Leece Partnership, will be built facing Borella Road on the Albury hospital’s East Albury site. Plans are for a three-storey centre, built around two courtyards. The ground floor — for radiotherapy treatment — would have three linear accelerator bunkers, with space for a fourth.There will also be meeting, seminar and co nference rooms, treatment and consulting rooms, a wellness centre and a cafe. Clinical trials will be conducted on the first floor where there will also be doctor and specialist consulting rooms, a pharmacy and a day-oncology unit. The unit will have 30 chemotherapy chairs in “pods” of seven.Chemotherapy treatment bays, along the north and east walls, will give patients an outside view. There will be two paediatric chemotherapy chairs in the children’s ward. The 30-bed inpatient ward, on the second floor, has 15 public and 15 private beds. All rooms, around two v-shaped spaces, have courtyard and garden views. Greg said the plan was “about ensuring the cancer centre would be in the right place without compromising the site”. He said the plan took in the views of all groups involved. “We are now in design development, looking at every room and signing off every piece of equipment and furniture,” he said. “That will be complete in December. “The amenity of the centre has been a driving factor, the light it receives from the north.” He said the building would promote a “multi-disciplinary-team approach that is patient-centric, providing a one-stop shop for diagnosis and treatment”. He said the centre would encourage “translational research” and offer respite and non-clinical services such as support and advice and education for patients and community.” There would be a foyer on the northern side of the building and 140 car spaces to the west behind a landscape buffer. Trees in the buffer and courtyards will reflect seasonal change. “Generous waiting spaces will offer some privacy.,” “We have aimed to get away from the usual institutional feeling of hospitals by softening clinical spaces.” |
Category Archives: Guest Speakers
Club Meeting 17 October 2012
President’s Message: On Saturday the Club carried out the presentations re River of Stories at the Albury Library. Barry has done some great work over the years – 10 to be exact – regarding the apparently seamlessly run project on the Clubs behalf, and is to be congratulated on such devoted work. The River of Stories started off with 5 Schols from Albury – Wodonga and that has now increased to 14, and also includes a poetry section, which has proved to be highly popular. Barry would be the first to state that he has received great assistance over the ten years from Katrina Clement and Tracey Piltz of Albury Library and the trio have made it the success it now is. Interesting to see that many of the award winners this year came from Wodonga schools. My thanks to all Rotary club members who attended the presentations too, and again to Julie who took many photographs of individual winners. Just as well as the photographer from the Border Mail didn’t materialise as had been arranged. Efforts are now being made to have all the winning stories printed . Councillor Patricia Gould who was in attendance at the presentation has stated it is a project the Albury City Council Junior Council can undertake and I understand that will be followed up. Thankyou again to those club members who were able to attend. I understand all winners’ photographs will be appearing on our own website in the near future. Also thankyou to the BBQ team keeping the Rotary till rolling over at the Applause Festival. All very much appreciated.
Guest Speaker: Ian Thomas from the Rotary Club of Eltham gave us an interesting presentation on the successes and challenges of the Aquabox programme and provided details of setting up and continuing this worthwhile venture. Aquabox provides emergency relief to people affected by disaster by sending essential provisions to devastated areas around the world. These boxes provide people in need with the basic humanitarian aid and, most importantly, clean, drinking water. Aquabox Beginnings: Aquabox was founded by the Rotary Club of Wirksworth UK, which was involved in providing assistance to disaster areas by dispatching plywood boxes filled with emergency supplies. In 1990, the club identified an opportunity to extend the use of the relief boxes by constructing them out of stronger materials. In addition to its original packaging purpose, the new, plastic box could be also used by disaster‐affected communities for storage, furniture, etc. and, with the addition of a tap and purification system, it could be used to create drinking water from polluted supplies. The Aquabox was finally launched in October 1992 and now operates in UK, Australia and Canada to provide emergency relief around the world. Since then, tens of thousands of boxes have been despatched to areas affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods etc., as well as war‐torn countries. Aquabox Australia: In 1999, on a visit to the UK, an Australian Rotary member learnt of the Aquabox project and was inspired to establish a similar charity in Australia. The Rotary Club of Eltham took up the cause and established Aquabox Australia. Initially, Aquabox Australia used the boxes designed by the Rotary Club of Wirksworth but have since developed, in conjunction with AusAID, an Aquabox more suited to our region. Aquabox (Australia) is a project of the Rotary Club of Eltham and exists with the generous support of Rotary Clubs, individuals, private and public organisations and groups. Only through much‐needed donations has Aquabox (Australia) has been able to expand its efforts and help more people around the world. However, the need for emergency aid continues to grow and demand is outstripping current resources. You can help, sponsor Aquabox and extend a helping hand to those in need. For more information visit www.aquabox.com.au
Club Meeting 10 October 2012
President’s Message: Well an enjoyable evening had by all on Wednesday evening when about 20 of us went to see the film “Mental”, which had been arranged by Julie and her team. This was the second Club event Julie has arranged, the first being the wine tasting of Stanton and Killeen, and both have been excellent evenings. It was also lovely that Margaret McDonald was able to join us for the evening. Just a reminder that next week’s meeting is HAT Day which is our part of activities re Mental Health Week. So if hats of previous years are anything to go by, the varieties will be as good as any at Albury Gold Cup or Oaks Day. I understand that there will be a variety of prizes on offer on the day. Also the Speaker at this week’s meet should be of particular interest talking about the Rotary ‘Aquabox’ program, and thanks to Terry for arranging this presentation.
Guest Speaker: As CEO of Hume Medicare Local, David Dart gave us an insight into the operation since its commencement earlier this year. Covering a wide area on both sides of the border this organisation provides the opportunity for GP 
networking and extensive support services to a varied cross-section of our community. Medicare Locals are an integral part of national health reform. They are being established across Australia to better address local health needs, improve access to services and make the system easier for people to navigate. The Hume Medicare Local opened on 1 July 2012. So, we’re now part of a network of 62 Medicare Locals being established across Australia to better connect primary health care. As a primary (non-hospital) health care organisation, the Hume Medicare Local will partner with GPs, community health organisations, primary care partnerships, allied health providers, state and local governments to: identify and address local health care needs and service gaps; drive improvements in primary health care and ensure that services are better tailored to meet the needs of local communities; build on work previously undertaken by the Albury Wodonga Regional GP Network and North East Victorian Division of General Practice. The Hume Medicare Local was formed by the merger of these GP Divisions. In its first 12 months of operation, our key priorities are likely to include: establishing links with partners and stakeholders; mapping current primary (non-hospital)… health care services and identifying gaps; population health planning; and organisational accreditation.
Club Meeting 22 August 2012
Guest Speaker: Dan Sawyer on Social Media. Dan gave us an overview on the fascinating subject of Social Media and Social Networking. The business and professional network of over 160 million people. It goes on the concept of “how many degrees of separation are you away from people?” This is where Dan explained that most of us will benefit from exploring and getting to know what it is about. You can connect to friends and work colleagues, clients and industry contacts – and see who their contacts are. Rotary International has several ‘Groups’ where Rotarians can discuss ideas and club business. Surprisingly there are only 62 members of the group ‘Australian members of Rotary International’, so please ‘join’ this group and interact with other Rotarians. Dan proposed that our club have a “Closed Group” for us to discuss ideas and maintain fellowship in the online space. Creating a free Twitter account allows you to ‘follow’ people who you choose. Twitter is small bursts of information and the recent Olympic Games allowed athletes to share their thoughts and results instantly with followers. Twitter has revolutionised the news and reporting. Several years ago we waited for the morning newspaper to read about the news. Then television delivered our news at 6pm, so we waited until then. Now with Twitter on your phone or computer, you get instant news and information the second something happens. You don’t have to tweet at all, but there are over 500 million people you can follow, like Rotary International, various clubs and individuals. Try it out. Some to follow include @ABCNews, @bordermail, @3AW693, @Prime7Albury and @Collingwood_FC . We all know facebook. With over 900 million users, it allows people to connect on a social level to share photos, videos and information about what they like and are doing. Companies actually pay facebook to promote being ‘liked’ which gives them a chance to market to those individuals. Albury Hume Rotary Club has a facebook page, so please ‘Like’ it!! Google+ is Google’s attempt at knowing everything. There are 250 million people signed up. One of the original Social Media sites. Bought by News Corp for $580M in 2005, Justin Timberlake bought it last year for just $35M. Facebook more or less replaced it. Urbanspoon is a peer review site for restaurants. Tripadvisor is a peer review site for travel and hotels. There are literally hundreds of other social media and networking websites, so the topic is very deep. Please feel free to contact Dan further if you need advice or guidance. He tweets as @mppersonnelAUS and is on Linked In. So get connected!
Club Meeting 15 August 2012
GUEST SPEAKER: In his unique lay-back style Matthew Ward spoke of his journey of acheivement in Paralympic Swimming illustrating his efforts with a video … he apologised for the poor audio of the video, however, as a ‘quiet 
acheiver’ Matt has accomplished more than your average young guy … he swims in the Multiclass due to a hip disability and commenced swimming three years ago as exercise for his condition. Matt’s week involves a rigorous training schedule, competing in numerous short course competitions, championships, olympic trials … all the time supported by a netwok of close family and friends. Matt’s specialty is Breast Stroke and in this area he has broken 8 NSW records in total … he has also broken an Australian Open record for the 200 metres Butterfly and made it to the CHS Nationals last year, in Sydney, where he again, broke 2 National Records … he was there again this year. Matt was also a finalist in the recent ‘Young Sports Achiever Award’. He hopes to be able to participate in the Australian Short Course Championships, in September in Perth, for which he has qualified. He has many goals over the coming four years, his main being the Paralympics in Rio. In addition, the Australian Paralympic coach has recently been in touch with Matthew’s coach and suggested that he will possibly be selected into the Australian Junior Team for the Arafura Games, in Darwin, in early 2013. At these games, he will receive his International classification, which may be the beginning of his swimming in international competitions. In 2014 the Commonwealth games, in Scotland, are also on Matthew’s sporting radar. Matt’s mum, Sally, mentioned in her follow-up address, that Matt is indeed a quiet achiever and works hard at all his endeavours, does well in school and also loves music. In 2011 he received a scholarship from the conservatorium for piano and during this year he was in the Conservatorium Orchestra. He has eased up his involvement with the orchestra this year because of the demands of swimming. At the conclusion of his address Matt was presented with a cheque from Albury Hume.