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INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL NOEL, OAM With Linda Hansen, Executive Officer, Palliative Care NSW I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing palliative care’s most recent inductee into the Australia Day Honours List – Dr Michael Noel, OAM. Dr Noel has had a very long association with palliative care and is the Immediate Past President of Palliative Care NSW. Dr Noel is currently Staff Specialist Palliative Care Physician at Nepean Hospital and Director, Palliative Care, Nepean Cancer Care Centre, Penrith NSW. Dr Noel’s extracurricular activities have included the following: • Committee Member, Palliative Care NSW 1992 – 2005 • President, Palliative Care NSW 2003, 2004 • NSW nominee on Council of Palliative Care Australia • Board member of The Cancer Council, NSW 1997– 2005 • Councillor, AMA NSW 1999 - 2005 • Vice President of Outstretched Hand Foundation • Board Member, Uniting Church Retirement Village (25 yrs) • Chair, Uniting Church Retirement Village (2 yrs) LH Let’s start off with the obvious question – why did you get into palliative care? MN I think everyone who gets into palliative has their own story to tell. I was a GP when my wife, Barbara, developed cancer in the mid 70’s. She had a mastectomy and then in 1980 she had a recurrence and underwent chemotherapy but she died that year. That process was very difficult – management of her symptoms was difficult – she had pain but she also had breathlessness. Palliative care wasn’t a highly developed discipline in those days and in fact there were very few people involved. Most notably was Theresa Plane, who owned Mt Carmel Private Hospital in Seven Hills. She donated 2 of her private beds to palliative care. Her contribution to palliative care in her lifetime should be recognised. She went on to establish the ‘Outstretched Hand’ Foundation’, which published a lot of literature for use by palliative care practitioners and patients and that went on for many years. Anyway, we took Barbara to Mt Carmel for a couple of days and there I was introduced to ‘fixed interval variable dosed’ morphine along with a few other things that caught my eye. Barbara spent 2 or 3 days in Mt Carmel and then returned home where she died two days later. So it was after that I developed an interest in palliative care. I attended a couple of educational meetings that Theresa ran. She brought Balfour Mount out to Australia in about 1982! He was just electrifying. And then we Dr Michael Noel, OAM talked to our health administrators in Penrith and we were allocated 5 beds in a state-run nursing home and started looking after terminally ill patients in the early 80’s. We were looking after about 100 patients a year there through those five beds. Most GPs would manage 2- 4 people who died a year so it was a significant workload. It just grew from there. At that stage I was still delivering babies so I had both ends of the spectrum covered – cradle to grave! Palliative care has been very fortunate to have been supported by all sides of government at both federal and state levels. I believe that Australia has one of the best palliative care systems in the world. I don’t think we can doubt that every person in this country who wants to access palliative care can do so. In Penrith, we started off with a palliative care community nurse and the service grew from there. We got a doctor and then I gave up general practice and became a full time palliative care doctor. LH That must have been a difficult decision! MN Yes it was – and you really have to want to do it for a number of reasons. LH How long have you been at Nepean as full time palliative care practitioner? MN I was part time for 2 years and full time for the last 10 – so 12 years all up! LH How did you hear about the award? MN Well I received a letter saying I’d been nominated, then another letter around Christmas to say that I’d be awarded a medal! I was absolutely astonished to receive that letter, I can tell you! LH It’s a great thing for you but it’s also a great thing for palliative care. Congratulations. What are you going to do with your new letters? MN Well I’m having a little break from committee work and such – and we’ll see what happens. I need to work on the farm for a while – but if there’s work to do, then I’ll be back. LH Oh there’ll always be work to do! 4
PCA NATIONAL OFFICE REPORT Happy New Year to you all and welcome to the first newsletter for 2006. The achievements in 2005 have paved the way for this year to be full of fresh opportunities to further support the extraordinary efforts of members of our palliative care sector. Donna Daniell, the National Projects Manager at PCA, has agreed to serve as Acting Executive Director until further notice. Donna brings significant health policy, management and lobbying experience to the role and is looking forward to representing the aspirations of the palliative care sector to the best of her ability. This year our work, through the Standards and Quality Subcommittee, on introducing the Standards for Quality in Palliative Care for all Australians, will continue, following the completion of the highly successful Skills Building workshop series in late 2005. PCA will continue to collaborate with the sector to achieve our priorities in the strengthening the adoption, measurement and integration of the Standards. The theme of collaboration – with key health sector stakeholders will become increasingly dominant during 2006. Coinciding with PCA Council in March, PCA will host – “Partners in Palliative Care – How are we doing? This discussion forum will involve around 25 representatives from major health peak organisations together with our 20 PCA Council Members, and is an important component in PCA’s Strategic Plan review. The aim is to listen to players – outside our sector - to test how well PCA has achieved the objectives of fostering improvements in the Equity, Access and Quality in palliative care services across Australia and to identify opportunities for working together. The plans for the 2006 National Palliative Care week and the theme “Partners in Care” are in the final throws of completion by PCA’s Promotion and Marketing Committee. We look forward to working with all PCA member organisations for these series of events from 21 – 27 May 2006. To get involved contact your state and territory organisation via the PCA website or the details in this edition. This year is poised to see new information on government policy and funding priorities as the result of the review of the National Palliative Care Program. One key performance expectation of Palliative Care Australia is to represent the interests of the palliative care sector and community with skill and confidence. Accordingly, the three factors for success are to have - Clearly articulated strategies that fit the environment (informed by our strategic review). - Strong alliances with organisations that share our vision (informed by our discussion forum). - Skills in managing communication and relationship networks. (lead by PCA Executive and team). Commensurate with the value of palliative care to the Australian community, the breadth of our representation activities is large and in this endeavour PCA has many targets for its important work in policy development and political lobbying. These include the commonwealth government portfolio areas of Health and Ageing, Family, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Human Services, Employment and Workforce Relations and Education and Training. PCA aims to keep you informed on the developments in this important area. A major feature for this year is also the delivery of significant projects that aim to strengthen the recognition and support for palliative care in our target sectors of aged care and primary care. PCA’s performance in the aged care project has been recognised with an exciting expansion of this projects, following the successful management of the over 1800 staff from residential aged care facilities across Australia, who participated in the national training workshop series. PCA is pleased to have appointed additional project team members to support this important work. See later in this edition for details of the projects, announcement on the aged care project, as well as an introduction to the PCA team members. The Federal Government has also put an initiative in place to enable better palliative care services throughout Australia. A three phase grants program has been implemented and is aimed at providing organisations with the finances to upgrade their existing equipment, strengthen pastoral care and improve palliative care services. So far over 70 organisations have received funding through the grants program. Further details can be found later in this newsletter. PCA looks forward to representing the palliative care sector in 2006. Please contact us, or your state and territory organisation as all feedback is gratefully received. Enjoy the colours of Autumn – wherever you may be! PCA Team Autumn 2006 5
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