The Department of Neurology provides a range of neurological services (stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, headache medicine, neuromuscular junction disorders) at Western Health. On site (Footscray campus) there is also a Neurosurgery Unit.
State of the art neuroimaging facilities are provided by the Radiology department.
The Clinical School of the University of Melbourne in Melbourne's West is located at Sunshine Hospital. The Neurology Unit is very active in undergraduate and post-graduate medical teaching.
The Department of Neurology has 25 Neurology and Stroke beds located on one floor of the hospital: Ward 3E, Sunshine Hospital. The ward includes an Acute Stroke Unit comprising four beds.
More than 2000 patients are admitted to the Neurology Unit annually making it one of the busiest units in Melbourne. More than 1000 stroke patients are admitted to our stroke service annually making our stroke service the busiest in Victoria.
Ambulant care facilities allow for treatment of patients who require regular infusions for chronic neurological disorders and provide for specialised diagnostic testing.
The Department provides a consultative service to all other units at Western Health (Sunshine campus and Footscray campus).
There is a busy outpatient program with multiple specialty clinics held every week: neurology; acute neurology; stroke; TIA; epilepsy; first seizure; and movement disorders.
The Department holds two weekly meetings. One is a clinical meeting, incorporating imaging, clinical presentations and invited speakers and the other is an audit of the unit's activities and all discharges from the unit during that week. Presentations are made to the Network Grand Rounds approximately twice per year. The Department provides a busy clinical training environment enabling neurology trainees to develop a clinical skill base that few services in the country can match, and is an ideal learning environment for junior medical staff who rotate through the service.
The neurophysiology diagnostic service provided includes: electroencephalography (EEG), nerve conduction studies (NCS) / electromyography (EMG) and evoked potentials (EP).
Inpatient video-EEG facilities allow for at least one patient to undergo monitoring every week (on pause until further notice).
Neuroscience Research Unit
Professor Tissa Wijeratne leads the neuroscience research unit which participates in clinical research in stroke, neuropsychology, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders and epilepsy.
There is active recruitment to international, randomised, double blind trials including seven international multicentre acute stroke trials and three clinical trials in multiple sclerosis. The unit collaborates with several leading neurology centres across Australia and New Zealand, the Asia Pacific region (Sri Lanka, India and Thailand), Yale University, USA, Harvard Medical School stroke unit, La Trobe University, Victoria University and University of Melbourne.
There are several PhD students affiliated with the unit at present in collaboration with the Neuroscience Research Unit.
We welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students.
Training in stroke research is provided to fellows from Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
Head of Unit : Professor Tissa Wijeratne
Contact Us
Department of Neurology
Telephone 8395 9075 or 8345 6169
Facsimile 9318 6342
Email (Referrals Only): [email protected]
Neurology Outpatients
Telephone 8345 6490
Facsimile 8345 6856
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Telephone: 8395 9075
Facsimile: 9318 6342
Email (Referrals Only): [email protected]
Nerve Conduction Studies/ EMG / Evoked Potentials
Telephone: 8395 9075
Facsimile: 9318 6342
Email (Referrals Only): [email protected]
