Heart and Lung Transplant Trust

Welcome to the website of the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust (Victoria) Incorporated based in Melbourne, Australia.  Our organisation assists our members who are pre- and post- heart and lung transplant patients of The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.

2012 Raffle

Exciting donations for raffle prizes have come from businesses in Lakes Entrance - a two night accommodation package at Bellevue on the Lakes, a boat cruise including lunch at Wyanga Park Winery, a meal voucher at Lakes Sports and Community Club and a 3 hour fishing trip on the "Mulloway".  Member Jill Reid and her patchwork group in Howlong NSW have made a beautiful country life patchwork quilt.  The raffle tickets will be available in late January. The selling of tickets will coincide with DonateLife Week in February 2012. The raffle will be drawn at the Easter BBQ on Sunday 1 April 2012.

1st Prize -Two Nights Accommodation at "Bellevue on the Lakes", Lakes Entrance; $100 Dinner Voucher at Lakes Sports and Community Club; Trip to Wyanga Park Winery on the ferry "Corque" which includes lunch for two (Over $500 in value - conditions apply)
3 Hour Fishing Trip for two on the "Mulloway"

2nd Prize –‘Country Life’ Patchwork Quilt 1.16 m x 1.16 m – Donated by heart transplant recipient Jill Reid and her Howlong Patchwork Group

Your help in selling raffle tickets in your area would be very much appreciated.

Please contact Rom on 0418 514 227 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to arrange for raffle books to be sent to you. 

Lung transplant clinic activity over the Christmas and New Year period

The Clinic will be closed on the public holidays in this period, however there are emergency clinics running during the next two weeks for acutely unwell patients. If you have any urgent enquiries throughout this period you can phone switchboard on 9076 2000 and ask to speak to the Air 1 Registrar on call. As always, there will be a member of the Transplant Team available via switch 24 hours a day. For any non-urgent issues or uncomplicated prescriptions, we encourage you to attend you local doctor.

Special General Meeting to consider changes to the Constitution

A special general meeting has been convened by the Management Commitee for Tuesday 7 February 2012 at 7.30pm to consider changes to the Constitution of the Trust.  The meeting will be held at The Alfred Hospital 5th floor seminar room. Invitation to meet informally at Alf's Cafe from 7.00pm.  All welcome.  More details of the proposed changes can be found here.

Next BBQ

The annual Easter BBQ will be held on Sunday 1 April 2012 at 11.30am in Fawkner Park. more

Organ donation discussed on SBS Insight program

The SBS Insight program on Tuesday 18 October at 7:30pm is about organ donation.

More details can be found here:
http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/439/Organ-Donation

The program is normally repeated Friday 1:30pm and Monday 2:00pm on SBS ONE and Friday 8:30pm on SBS TWO.

Alfred proposal about reduction in lung transplants

The Age newspaper reported on 17 September that The Alfred is considering restricting the number of lung transplants it performs due to budgetary constraints.  Read the article here.

The Trust was deeply disturbed by this report and considered how best to address the issue with The Alfred and various government stakeholders.  We urged all members to write to their State Government representative, the Premier of Victoria, the Health Minister of Victoria and the CEO of The Alfred to object.

There were more articles about this issue with conflicting accounts.  What seems clear is that the program was temporarily cut.

We have received confirmation, as of 4 October 2011, that the lung transplant program is now operating normally again.  Our, and various other stakeholders', pressure seems to have won the day. More here

Member fitness grant

The Trust is pleased to announce that a new fitness grant is available to post transplant members to assist in their fitness activities. It provides a 50% reimbursement up to a maximum $150 per member to encourage members to keep fit and healthy. more

Organ donors increasing but more Australians need to ask and know

A DonateLife media release on 8 June 2011 has highlighted the increasing number of organ donors but that more Australian need to ask and know

• 416 Australian lives saved or improved by donated organs from 141 deceased donors in year to date (January – May 2011).
• This represents highest donation and transplantation outcomes for the same period since national records began
• 40% of Australians still do not know donation wishes of their loved ones.
• Family consent rates remain less than 60%.
• 1,602 Australians on national transplant waiting lists as at 2 May 2011   more

Heart to Heart Respite House

The house is  maintained as a respite home in Barmah, Victoria, for use by pre and post heart and lung transplant patients and their carers, so that they may have a place to rest, recuperate, recover and have a break. more

More news...