St Vincent's Hospital

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Eastern Health

The Northern Hospital

Geelong Hospital

Ballarat Base Hospital

Goulburn Valley Health

Warrnambool Base Hospital

St Vincent's Hospital is a 400 bed tertiary referral hospital directly servicing the inner east and north of Melbourne. A significant volume of the surgical workload is derived from referrals from metroplitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. St Vincent's is actively affiliated with and supports many regional and rural hospitals.
The three general surgical units share the receiving commitment with each registrar on one night per week and one in three weekends. There is no night surgical registrar.

Supervisor of advanced training: Mr Jamie Keck

General Surgery 1

GS1 is the specialist colorectal unit at St Vincent's. It manages the entire spectrum of colorectal disease with strong emphasis on difficult and re-operative pelvic surgery for malignancy, surgical management of inflammatory bowel disease, laparoscopic colorectal surgery, and disorders of function of the pelvic floor and anorectum.
There is one dedicated surgical colonoscopy list per week and the unit also runs an anorectal ultrasound and physiology lab.

Head of unit: Mr Rod Woods

Consultants: Mr Jamie Keck, Mr Michael Johnston and Mr Alexander Heriot

Junior staff: Fellow, registrar, 2 interns

Department of Surgery

The DOS unit provides the specialist breast and endocrine surgery service. The department of surgery also manages the full range of general surgical conditions with close liason with the subspecialty units as appropriate. Registrars will be exposed to the range of surgical options for breast cancer with sentinel node biopsy and subcutaneous mastectomy with immediate reconstruction well established techniques at St Vincent's. A surgical oncology clinic also manages soft tissue sarcomas and melanomas on the DOS unit.
On the endocrine side thyroid surgery provides the bulk of the workload but the unit also manages parathyroid, adrenal and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.

Head of unit: Mr Michael Henderson

Consultants: Mr Paul Kitchen, Mr Patrick Hayes, Miss Sue Moore, Mr Stephen Farrell, Miss Jane Harding

Junior staff: Fellow or registrar, 2 interns

General Surgery 3

GS3 is the specialist hepatopancreaticobiliary and upper gastrointestinal unit at St Vincent's. It manages the spectrum of malignancies involving the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver and biliary tree. There is also an emphasis on advanced laparoscopic techniques to manage benign disorders particularly of the stomach and oesophagus such as hiatus hernia, reflux and achalasia.

Head of unit: Associate Professor Dominic Vellar

Consultants: Mr Richard Cade, Mr Simon Banting, Mr Sean Mackay

Junior staff: Fellow, registrar, 2 interns

Cardiothoracic Surgery (CTS)

This unit provides both specialist cardiac and specialist thoracic surgical services. The general surgical trainee will be predominantly involved in thoracic surgery. The three registrars share the cardiothoracic on-call committment however they are not on-site after hous unless called.

Head of unit: Mr Anthony Wilson

Consultants: Mr Ian Nixon, Mr Michael Yii, Mr Alex Rosalion, Mr James Kenny, Mr Gavin Wright, Mr Naveed Allem

Junior staff: 3 registrars (2 cardiothoracic trainees, 1 general trainee), 1 resident, 1 intern

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The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a dedicated cancer treatment centre. The surgical oncology services provided within Peter Mac are continually increasing in breadth and complexity. This hospital is able to manage the full spectrum of cancer related illness within a multidisciplinary setting. One registrar is on rotation from St Vincent's and works on the Breast and Melanoma Unit whilst a second registrar is on rotation from the Royal Melbourne Hospital and works on the Gastrointestinal Unit.

Supervisor of advanced training: Associate Professor Michael Henderson

Breast and Melanoma

This unit provides specialist surgical care for breast and skin cancers. There is also collaboration with the sarcoma unit for management of soft tissue and retroperitoneal sarcomas.

Head of unit: Associate Professor Henderson

Consultants: Mr David Speakman, Dr Catherine Poliness, Dr Stewart Hart

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 resident

GastroIntestinal

This unit provides specialist surgical care for all gastrointestinal malignancies.

Head of unit: Professor Robert Thomas

Consultants: Mr Bruce Mann, Associate Professor Jack Mackay, Mr Gavin Wright, Mr Frank Chen, Mr Malcolm Steel, Mr Alexander Heriot

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 resident

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Eastern Health now has it's own independent accredited training scheme. As such St Vincent's trainees rotated to Box Hill enter that training scheme for 6 months and may therefor may be rotated to other Eastern Health sites.

Supervisor of training: Mr Sayed Hassen

For details on rotations available through Eastern Health refer to the Eastern Health section of this site.

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A major metropolitan hospital initially established on the outskirts of suburban Melbourne has now been surrounded by rapid urban development. The emergency department is the busiest in Victoria. On-call here exposes the trainee to a wide range of general and paediatric surgery. Importantly in such a busy hospital, there is an overnight surgical registrar. This job is manned by a Basic Sugical trainee. This allows the unit registrars to be rested in order to gain more from the next days training.
Five registrars are rotated to the Northern Hospital with one of these being a St Vincent's trainee, two from the Austin and two from Eastern Health.

Supervisor of advanced training: Mr David Butterfield

General Surgery 1 / Paediatric Surgery

The Surgery 1 Unit also encompasses paediatric surgery. The majority of the workload is a range of general surgery. Mr Tom Sweeney is an upper gastro-intestinal surgeon so ther is a wide exposure to the full range of upper GI surgery. Whipples and oesophageal resections are all performed on site. Liver resctions are probably the only upper GI / HPB operation referred to the Austin Hospital.
The paediatric surgery commitment involves a whole day list with Ms Wheatley every second week. During working hours the Surg 1 registrar is also on-call for acute paediatric surgical emergencies.

Head of unit: Mr Boon Hong

Consultants: (General) Mr Tom Sweeney, Mr Erik Koppert, (Paediatric) Ms Jeniffer Wheatley, Mr Alex Auldist, Mr Joe Cremeri, Ms Gwen Wilson

Junior staff: Registrar, 2 residents

General Surgery 2

The Professorial / Colorectal Unit

Head of unit: Professor Hamish Ewing

Consultants: Mr Andrew Bui, Ms Wanda Stelmach, Mr Devan Gya

Junior staff: Registrar, 2 residents

General Surgery 3

Endocrine / General

Head of unit: Mr Steve Manolas

Consultants: Mr Patrick Moore, Mr Ernest Lim

Junior staff: Registrar, 2 residents

General Surgery 4

Head of unit: Mr

Consultants: Mr Trevor McQuillan, Mr Strugnell

Junior staff: Registrar, 2 residents

Surgery 5 (Vascular/Thoracic)

The vascular unit shares a registrar and intern with the thoracic unit.

Head of unit: Mr

Consultants: (Vascular) Mr Tony Chan, Mr Neill Roberts, (Thoracic) Mr Seven Seevanayagam

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

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The Geelong Hospital is the largest outside of metropolitan Melbourne. Four registrars rotate from St Vincent's to Geelong.
The units share the reeceiving committment and each registrar is on one in five weekends. The weekend handover system works well so the registrar on does a large ward round on saturday and sunday whilst the others can get back to Melbourne for a weekend off.

Supervisor of advanced training: Professor David Watters

Surgery 1

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Head of unit: Mr George Kiroff

Consultants: Mr James Hurley, Mr Ken Chao

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Surgery 2

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Head of unit: Mr Greg Mitchell

Consultants: Mr Roger White, Mr Conrad Brandt

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Surgery 3

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Head of unit: Professor David Watters

Consultants: Mr Glen Guest, Mr Ted Heffernan

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Surgery 4

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Head of unit: Mr Simon Crowley

Consultants: Mr David Kidman, Miss Kim Prince

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Vascular

This unit provides specialist vascular surgical services.

Head of unit: Mr David North

Consultants: Mr David McClure, Mr Damien Holdaway

Junior staff: Registrar (vascular trainee), 1 intern

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The Ballarat Base Hospital. Two registrars rotate to Ballarat from St Vincent's whilst a third rotates from the Royal Melbourne Hospital
The three units share the general surgical receiving and each registrar is on one night in three and one weekend in three.

Supervisor of advanced training: Mr Stephen Tobin

Colorectal

This unit provides specialist surgical care for breast and skin and soft tissue cancers.

Head of unit: Mr Stephen Tobin

Consultants: Mr Bruce Stewart

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Upper GastroIntestinal

This unit provides specialist surgical care for breast and skin and soft tissue cancers.

Head of unit: Mr David Deutscher

Consultants: Mr Andrew Lowe, Mr Stuart Eaton

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

Vascular/Plastics

This unit provides specialist vascular surgical services. Open and edovascular surgery is performed as well as renal access surgery. The registrar is also involved with plastic surgery at Ballarat and will be exposed to a wide range of reconstructive surgery.
The vascular surgeons provide specialist vascular emergency cover after hours for most of the time.

Head of unit: Mr Rob Ventura

Consultants: Mr Michael Condous, Mr Rob Sheen (plastics)

Junior staff: Registrar, 1 intern

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The Goulburn Valley Base Hospital in Shepparton is a busy general hospital.
The general surgeons share the recieving committment and each registrar is on one night in three and one weekend in three. The roster allows for a five day working week with days of after weekends on call.

Supervisor of advanced training: Mr Tony Heinz

General Surgery

Three registrars share the workload of all general surgical patients in the hospital. They will also rotate through working with each of the consultants on a three week roster.

Head of unit: Mr Tony Heinz

Consultants: Mr Mark Eastman, Mr Roly Hunt, Mr David Dalton, Mr Vivek Singh

Junior staff: 3 registrars, 3 interns

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Warrnambool Hospital is a regional base hospital located on the south west coast of Victoria at the end of the Great Ocean Road. Summer-time at Warrnambool is especially nice, although the surf is probably better at Logans beach in the winter. Careful its not too big.
A regular Wednesday night out with the physio and OT department adds some good times.

Generally one advanced surgical trainee and one basic surgical trainee are rotated to Warrnambool. The workload is manageable and involves a good mix of general general surgery. Subspecialties visit from Melbourne and Geelong to complement the good broad service of provided by the hospital.

Supervisor of advanced training: Mr Stephen Fisher

Surgery 1

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Head of unit: Mr Stephen Fisher

Consultants: Mr Philip Gan

Junior staff: Registrar (AST), 1 resident

Surgery 2

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Head of unit: Mr Murphy

Consultants: Mr Brendan Mooney

Junior staff: Registrar (BST), 1 resident

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