About Us

The Barwon Health Renal Unit is located at Geelong Hospital in Victoria and is a medium sized service within the dialysis landscape of Australia. We have always held the view that there had to be a better way of providing dialysis for our patients than simply the ‘one-size-fits-all’ conventional dialysis approach. We believe that the concept of “adequate dialysis” based on mathematical formulae, as has been popularized over the last 20 years, is a flawed one. We believe that “adequate” is not synonymous with “optimal”.

In 1998, when we heard of the development of nocturnal haemodialysis by Andreas Pierratos and the late Robert Uldall from Toronto, Canada, we knew at once that there was now something better that we could offer our patients. We thus embarked on a program to introduce nocturnal haemodialysis into our service. We are now proud to offer our ~150 dialysis patients “flexible dialysis”. Flexible dialysis is a term we have promoted throughout Australia to embrace a “mix and match” process where all and every option is offered to all and every patient wherever it is possible to do so. We offer:

• Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis
• Automated nocturnal peritoneal dialysis (now 70% of our PD patients)
• Standard “conventional” 4 to 5 hour haemodialysis, 3 times weekly (in our hospital in-centre, in our satellite centres and in the home).
• Daily (6 days/week) short hour (2-2.5 hrs) dialysis (in our hospital in-centre or in our satellite centres)
• Nocturnal haemodialysis in the home, ranging from alternate night treatment (‘3.5’ nights/week) through to full 6-7 nights/week treatment depending on patient preference.

By offering these options in dialysis, we believe we now offer a truly “flexible dialysis” program. (sentence removed here) We believe that the time on and the frequency of dialysis are the keys. In our view, bigger dialysers and faster flow rates are not the answer.

We find the challenge of improving dialysis profiles an exciting one. We have been pleased to see other Australian units joining us in the quest to improve our dialysis programs and to seek better outcomes and lifestyles for our patients. We are proud to be a unit that is now nationally renowned for “thinking and moving outside of the box”. Clearly this needs to be done with care, with thought and with planning and, importantly, with an eye for detail. Hopefully, we are proving that that is possible.

Our dialysis team at Barwon Health includes:

• A/Prof John Agar MBBS FRCP (Lond) FRACP (Nephrologist and Unit Director)
• Dr Christine Somerville MBBS FRACP PhD (Nephrologist)
• Other nephrologists who have contributed are: Dr Kate Wiggins, Dr Kumar Mahadevan, Dr Nigel Toussaint, Dr Carolyn Clark, Dr Michelle Antonis, Dr Vince D'Intini and Dr Giles Huet (during a clinical sabbatical from France).

• Rosemary Simmonds RN (Nurse leader, NHHD program)
• Janeane Boddington RN and Raelene Hungerford RN (NHHD Nurses)
• Claire Waldron RN (Research Nurse)
• Richard Knight RN (Unit Nurse Manager)
• The dedicated nurses of our in-centre, satellite and PD programs

The Barwon Health Renal Unit team has been proud to receive

1. The prestigious “Advancement in Service Management Practices” award from the Australian Healthcare Association for its Nocturnal Dialysis Program in 2003.

2. The Victorian Public Healthcare Award for Innovations in Patient Care – “Changing Practice: Developing a cost-effective, outcome-rich, patient oriented overnight home haemodialysis program”.

The Barwon Health Renal Unit team would also like to gratefully acknowledge the following for their individual and collective contributions to our program:

• The Canadian team led by A/Prof Andreas Pierratos who developed Nocturnal Home Dialysis and inspired us to take it up in Australia
• Our patients here in Geelong who have had the courage to join with us in pioneering NHHD in Australia along with the many patients from around the world – and especially young Jesse from Canada – whose help has grown the site and maintained my enthusiasm with ever positive feedback.
• The Rotary Clubs of the Geelong Region who have helped support the initiation of the project
• The staff of the Geelong Hospital, who have had the faith to pursue new directions in dialysis care
• Fresenius Medical Care (Australia) who have given freely of their technical support and encouragement
• My colleagues in other renal units in Australia (particularly Peter Kerr at Monash and Carmel Hawley at Princess Alexandra) who have supported us and introduced even bigger programs at their institutions
• My New Zealand colleagues, especially Kelvin Lynn in Christchurch, who showed us the way