Shannon Fentiman orders repair of world-leading medical device at Gold Coast University Hospital
Queensland is drastically lagging behind other states in the use of a world-leading machine that reduces hair loss during chemotherapy.
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Queensland is drastically lagging behind other states in the use of a world-leading machine that reduces hair loss during chemotherapy.
Only two public hospitals have the Paxman scalp-cooling machine despite there being 47 in public hospitals nationally.
The lion’s share is in NSW and Victoria, with 19 and 15 respectively.
The only other state with two machines is Tasmania – whose population is more than 10 times less than Queensland’s.
On Monday, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman announced the $46,000 machine at Gold Coast University Hospital, which broke in July, would be fixed.
The estimated cost is understood to be less than $5000.
Ms Fentiman said she had met with patients in late August and immediately asked her director-general Michael Walsh to get the repairs sorted.
She said Gold Coast HHS had been working with Mr Walsh for a couple of weeks.
However, when The Courier-Mail contacted Queensland Health on Sunday, a spokesman for Gold Coast University Hospital said the machine was in a trial phase and “recently, the machine malfunctioned which resulted in the conclusion of the trial earlier than expected”.
Vicki Jarvis, a Pacific Pines mother of three who has stage 3 aggressive breast cancer, said she was “ecstatic” the machine would be operational again.
“We finally have had a win, “ said Ms Jarvis
“I almost cried when I heard, it was crazy it had been mothballed.”
Following Monday’s front page story in The Courier-Mail, Ms Jarvis spoke said she spoke with Ms Fentiman.
“The minister said they would like to get the machines rolled out in all public hospitals once the results of the trial at Gold Coast have been done,” she said.
“I said, great, but how long does a trial take? It’s already been producing great results for two years,” said Ms Jarvis, who has retained 70 per cent of her hair thanks to the machine.
The Paxman was installed in May 2021 due to fundraising by a local GP who’d used it while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer and Griffith Rotary Club.
It works by cooling the scalp through a cap to reduce blood flow, reducing the damage from chemo drugs to hair follicles.
The machine is also in Mount Is Hospital and 22 private facilities throughout Queensland which charge around $400 per treatment.
The device in Gold Coast University Hospital had not been regularly serviced, as recommended by the distributor of the British-made machine, for more than two years.
Ms Fentiman said: “As soon as I became aware of this situation, I asked Queensland Health to immediately find a solution so that these patients could continue to participate in the trial.”
She said pending evaluation of the trial would “love to see scalp cooling treatment rolled out to other public hospitals”.
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