Shared Care for Breast Cancer at The Women’s, The Royal Melbourne and Western Hospital
The combined Royal Melbourne/Royal Women’s Breast Service and the Western Hospital Sunshine Breast Unit are pleased to be trialling a shared care model between our hospitals’ breast units and GPs for women with breast cancer in the belief that patients are better served if their care after breast cancer treatment is shared between their GP and the Hospital.
The Breast and General Practice Liaison Units have successfully applied to the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre to be a demonstration site for this shared care project, which will address the safety and acceptability of a breast cancer Shared Care model.
In this model, after women have completed treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, we will provide both the woman and her GP with a summary of the pathology of the disease, a summary of treatment received and planned and a detailed follow-up plan. As this is a Pilot study, until this is routine practice we will be asking for you to sign and return a form indicating that you are happy to participate in this Shared Care Project when your patient consents to involvement.
Should there ever be a problem, we will facilitate rapid access to the breast clinic.
The hospitals have had advice that MBS Item # 729 - Contribution to a Multidisciplinary Care Plan – would be appropriate for patient’s GP to apply for in these cases of shared care.
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