Polio Place

Anne Duncan, CNC

Anne began working with ventilator dependent people in 1989 at Fairfield Hospital (FH) in Melbourne. At the time there were fewer than 40 people in Victoria using ventilators and 15 of them lived in the hospital. She was the Nurse Unit Manager of the ward from 1990 to 1998. In 1996 FH closed and moved to the Bowen Centre at the Austin hospital. In 1998, with Dept of Health funding, she set up the VRSS Outreach Service. It is a state-wide service that provides equipment, information and support for ventilator users living in the community. She operated alone in this role until 2005 when she took over the contract for ventilator service/repair and expanded the staff to manage the additional work. The Outreach team now consists of 4 Nurses, 1 Bio-medical engineer and a part time secretary. They have 1100 clients under their care, 750 of whom use a ventilator to help maintain their respiratory health. Approximately 8% of their clients are people living with the late effects of Polio.