Nutrition

Our Nutrition Department supports patients across all Western Health hospitals. Our team of accredited practising dietitians work across all units in hospitals, rehabilitation wards and outpatient clinics.

We help patients improve their health through good nutrition, using the latest evidence-based advice and treatments

Acute care

Our dietitians work across all clinical areas in our hospitals. We support patients with:

• nutritional assessment and meal planning
• oral nutritional supplementation
• special diets during illness or recovery
• tube feeding or intravenous (IV) nutrition if needed
• dietary counselling and education for patients and families.

Specialist areas include:

• intensive care
• upper gastrointestinal and colorectal surgery
• head and neck surgery
• general surgery
• neurology (brain and nerves)
• kidney health (nephrology)
• cancer care (oncology, haematology and radiotherapy)
• gut health (gastroenterology)
• diabetes management
• children’s health (paediatrics)
• pregnancy (maternity)

Subacute, aged care, and mental health and wellbeing 

In rehabilitation, mental health and wellbeing, aged care and palliative care, nutrition plays a key role in helping people:

• heal from illness or surgery
• regain energy and strength
• manage chronic conditions
• improve wound healing
• prevent or treat malnutrition
• improve quality of life.

Outpatient clinics

Dietitians also work in adult outpatient clinics across Sunshine and Footscray Hospitals. You may be referred to a dietitian while attending other specialist clinics, such as the Radiotherapy clinics, SMART clinics, Diabetes clinics, Kidney Health clinics, or Bowel Disease clinics.  At Williamstown Hospital, we offer a limited nutrition follow-up service for people recently discharged. 

Please note: We do not accept outside referrals for the above adult outpatient clinics.

We do, however, accept referrals from both patients and GPs at our Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs locations for community dietitian appointments. Please see below for more information

Women's & children's nutrition

The Nutrition Department provides care to inpatients and outpatients of the hospital with nutritional conditions related to women’s and children’s health.

Our dietitians have specialist knowledge of nutrition throughout all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation, preterm babies, infants, children and adolescents.

Only women who are birthing at Joan Kirner or Bacchus Marsh hospitals are eligible to access our outpatient Dietitian Maternity services. The paediatric nutrition outpatient team accept a limited number of external referrals from GPs for specialised conditions at both Joan Kirner and Melton sites.

Women’s and Children’s services are available at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital (Sunshine), as well as at Melton and Bachus Marsh Hospitals. 

Community health services 

Across the City of Melton and Moorabool Shire we offer a number of nutrition-focused community health services. 

You can make an individual appointment with a dietitian at our Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs campuses as well as in the home. We see people for a range of reasons, including:

• general healthy eating
• diabetes
• healthy eating in pregnancy
• cholesterol and heart health
• weight management support
• poor appetite
• digestive health such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or coeliac disease
• nutrient deficiencies
• nutrition relating to a disability or mental health condition.

Group programs are held at our Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs campuses or in external community spaces. These include:

• cooking programs
• supermarket tours
• label reading
• carbohydrate counting
• DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) program for people living with type 1 diabetes

Healthy eating and lifestyle sessions can be tailored to your group’s specific needs.

Please note: We do not accept outside referrals for our adult outpatient clinics at Sunshine, Footscray and Williamstown Hospitals.

We do, however, accept referrals from both patients and GPs at our Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs locations for community dietitian appointments. To arrange a self-referral, or more information, please call the Referral and Appointment Service on 03 9747 7609.

If you are over the age of 65 (50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) please contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.

Only women who are birthing at Joan Kirner (Sunshine) or Bacchus Marsh Hospitals are eligible to access our outpatient Dietitian Maternity services. The paediatric nutrition outpatient team accept a limited number of external referrals from GPs for specialised conditions at both Joan Kirner and Melton sites.

+ Hazeldean Transition Care Unit 

At Western Health, clinical nutrition research is an important part of how we improve care for our patients. The Nutrition Department is actively involved in research projects that help us better understand the role of nutrition in treatment and recovery.

We work on studies within our own department, as well as in partnership with other teams at Western Health, other hospitals, Deakin University and Victoria University.

Current areas of interest

• Research in intensive care, including participation in an international nutrition survey and an audit of patients being fed via a feeding tube.
• Research in cancer services, including participation in statewide point prevalence malnutrition studies, development and implementation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) malnutrition screening tool (MST), and piloting a prehabilitation program for patients having cancer surgery.  
• Research in malnutrition screening, diagnosis and intervention for people admitted to the hospital across all wards. The current spotlight is on surgical patients admitted at Sunshine Hospital.
• Evaluating support programs like the Volunteer Meal Assistance Program.
• Hospital menu changes for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.