Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown
Location
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is a teaching hospital within the University of Sydney and is one of the oldest in Australia, being established in 1882. It is adjacent to the main campus of the University of Sydney, about 5 kilometres southwest of the city centre. The Department is in its own building adjacent to the main hospital, which gives us a pleasant quiet environment, above ground level. There is easy access to public transport and adequate car parking on site. The adjacent suburb of Newtown is renowned for its student life as well as some rather more alternative lifestyles.
Equipment
Equipment consists of five Varian Linear Accelerators all with MLCs, EPI and three with OBI/CBCT facilities. We have an Oldelft simulator, a dedicated Toshiba wide bore CT scanner, an Eclipse 3-D planning system, and a Nucletron High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Unit. There is also a Pantak unit for orthovoltage and superficial treatments. We use the Varian ARIA Oncology Information System as the patient management system. The physics specific equipment includes a wide range of dosimetry and test equipment including a PTW Water tank system.
Clinics
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is particularly well known for its surgical services and its many multi-disciplinary clinics. These include breast, head and neck, sarcoma, lymphoma, gynaecology and lung cancer.. There are outreach clinics at Concord Hospital and Strathfield Private Hospital in Sydney, and Dubbo, in country New South Wales. Radiotherapy treatment is not provided at these locations; however "remote planning" is available in Dubbo once a month using the Radiology CT scanner (thus removing one trip to Sydney for these patients).
Staff
There are nine Radiation Oncologists and two Fellows. We have an establishment of 45 Radiation Therapists. There are 8 Radiation Oncology Medical Physicists, 3 Medical Physics Registrars. and 1 Research Physicist. We also have a wide range of support staff including nursing, secretarial staff, IT, engineering and clinical trials staff.
Hours of Operation
The Department operates from 8am to 5:30pm.
Caseload / Casemix
Each year we see approximately 1700 new patients, covering a broad range of disease sites. As well as IMRT and conventional radiotherapy, we currently provide total body irradiation, and Brachytherapy including HDR prostate and gynaecological treatments. The department also has a Stereotactic Radiosurgery unit.
Research
All staff are encouraged to take part in research and this is extended to staff members presenting clinical papers at national and international conferences. We have a close working relationship with the University of Sydney through the School of Physics and the School of Medical Radiation Sciences. The department is also involved in a number of national clinical trials including those conducted by TROG.
Further Information
It is a busy department but the working environment is interesting and pleasant and would be a fascinating place to spend one or two years enjoying the Sydney lifestyle. Further information is available on the Sydney Cancer Centre web site www.sydneycancer.com.au or you may wish to contact:
Radiation Oncology Department
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Missenden Road
Camperdown NSW 2050
Prof Christopher Milross
Head, Radiation Oncology
Ph: +61 2 9515 8746
Email: Chris.Milross@sswahs.nsw.gov.au
Mr Robin Hill
Head of Radiation Oncology Physics
Ph: +61 2 9515 7137
Email: robin.hill@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
Miss Joanne Page
Director of Radiation Therapy
Ph: +61 2 9515 7087
Email: joanne.page@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
Last updated July 2011