Cancer Services Clinical Stream
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) Cancer Services Clinical Stream provides networked cancer care and treatment across the Nelune Cancer Care Centre at Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH), St. George Hospital (SGH) Cancer Care Centre, The Sutherland Hospital (TSH) and the Royal Hospital for Women (RHW). The primary objective of the SESLHD Cancer Stream is to provide excellence in cancer care and research and to ensure equitable access to timely, innovative, state-of-the-art, evidence-based cancer services for all patients across our District.
| Adolescent and Young Adult | Haematology (blood and bone marrow cancers and non-malignant disorders |
| Medical Oncology | Radiation Oncology |
| Cancer Genetics Services | Cancer Surgery including Peritonectomy (shared service with Surgical Stream |
| Cancer Outreach Services | Psycho-oncology |
| In-patient Cancer Services | Clinical Trials |
| Survivorship |
| Breastscreen NSW | NSW Clinical Cancer Registry |
- Continue to work closely with the Cancer Institute NSW (CINSW) to support strategies to reduce the incidence of cancer in the community, increase survival rates for people diagnosed with cancer and improve the quality of life for people with cancer and their carers.
- Identify opportunities to improve equity of access to cancer services across our District.
- Support system capacity improvement activities to help strengthen existing services to ensure our patients receive the right care in the right place at the right time.
- Work with our Aboriginal Health Team and our Aboriginal Communities to provide culturally safe cancer care for Aboriginal people. Engage with our Aboriginal Community to ensure codesign during service planning to help improve access to and uptake of cancer services and screening by Aboriginal people across our District.
- Ensure ongoing access for our patients to clinical trials and clinical research projects on prevention and treatment of cancers.
- Continue to promote and contribute to the NSW Reporting for Better Cancer Outcomes (RBCO) data to help inform continuous improvement activities to improve the experiences and outcomes of people affected by cancer.
- Partner with our Strategy Improvement and Innovation Team to implement virtual health models of care within Cancer Services
- In line with the SESLHD Strategic Plan Exceptional Care, Healthier Lives 2022-2025 – Supporting Teams to Thrive Strategy, the Cancer Stream will promote opportunities to ensure a collaborative, diverse and inclusive team who work towards a shared vision for our patients.
- The Cancer Stream will ensure an ongoing focus on staff satisfaction and retention recognising the importance of our highly trained and specialised staff. We will continue to promote a culture where our staff are able to flourish, and wellbeing is a priority.
National Lung Cancer Screening Program
The National Lung Cancer Screening Program will commence in July 2025. The program will target high-risk individuals to detect lung cancer in its early stages to increase the likelihood of successful treatment and improve lung cancer outcomes. GPs will be able to order low-dose CT scans on asymptomatic high-risk individuals at 2-yearly intervals. Those detected with changes on CT scans suggestive of high malignancy risk or suspected lung cancer will be referred to a specialist linked to a multidisciplinary team (MDT) for assessment and treatment.
Cancer Institute NSW will lead this body of work across the State. At South Eastern Sydney Local Health District a working group has been established across the relevant disciplines to review current processes and develop local pathways and systems to support patients with access to appropriate diagnostic testing and treatments.
Patient Reports Measures
Patient Report Measures (PRMs) capture the perspectives of patients on their experiences and outcomes of their cancer care. SESLHD has implemented the Cancer Institute NSW Patient Reports Measures program at both St. George Hospital and The Sutherland Hospital. The program is being developed at Prince of Wales Hospital and should be operational in May 2024
Referral Processes
The Cancer Stream continues to work with the HealthPathways team to develop priority cancer HealthPathways for use by primary care clinicians with condition management, service navigation and referral to cancer services across SESLHD.
The Cancer Stream is working with eHealth on expansion of a the ‘Engage Outpatients’ program into cancer services. This program is part of a new Statewide digital referral management solution to improve the referral experience of patients, referrers and clinicians in outpatient services.
A/Professor Winston Liauw
Clinical Stream Director
Nicola Groarke
Clinical Stream Nurse Manager
Mobile: 0459 979 890
Email: Nicola.groarke@health.nsw.gov.au
Julia Allen
Administrative Support Clinical Streams
Phone: 02 9540 8284
Fax: 02 9540 8293
Email: Julia.allen@health.nsw.gov.au
Julie Lane
Administrative Support Clinical Streams
Phone: 02 9540 8285
Fax: 02 9540 8293
Email: Julie.lane@health.nsw.gov.au
You may find these links useful for more in depth information regarding a cancer diagnosis:
Breast Cancer Network Australia
Cancer Institute - Patient Information
