A DAMNING new report has called for radiotherapy services to be established in Tamworth as a matter of urgency after it was revealed nearly a third of patients who needed treatment missed out.
Country cancer patients are the worst affected with the principal problem being a shortage of services and the poor distribution of public radiotherapy centres around the state.
Only six of NSW’s 42 linear accelerators – the heart of any radiotherapy unit – are located outside Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.
They are at Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga and Gosford.
The report prepared by the Cancer Council, “Improving Radiotherapy - Where to from here? A roadmap for the NSW Government” was released
yesterday.
It has called for five new radiotherapy services across the state, including Tamworth.
The report also calls for the expansion of services at three other sites in order to meet the projected increases in cancer incidences by 2012.
In the northern part of the Hunter New England Health area it is projected there will be 1095 new cases of cancer who will require cancer services by 2011 and 1216 by 2016.
Disturbingly, however, the incidence of new cancer cases in the population is rising faster than the actual population.
In the northern part of HNEH area a decrease in population was expected between 2001 and 2016 (181,172 to 178,594) but the incidence of cancer will increase by 23 per cent (from 986 to 1216).
There is currently no radiotherapy treatment centre located in the North West region, meaning patients need to travel vast distances.
For some, the obstacles are too great and they miss out.
The Cancer Council has said if its recommendations are accepted radiotherapy services would be enhanced, patient access increased and utilisation rates would be able to move closer to the benchmark of at least 50 per cent of cancer patients.
On a state level, the report revealed about 51,000 patients missed out on radiotherapy treatment and 40,000 years of life were lost between 1996 and 2006.
Cancer Council North West regional manager Christine Roach said patients should not have their health and lives placed under threat simply because of a lack of planning, management and investment into radiotherapy from the State Government.
“This sobering report digs deep into a completely unacceptable landscape where just 36 per cent of NSW patients receive radiotherapy, even though most health authorities accept that at least half of all cancer patients need the treatment,” she said.
“It’s imperative to see long-term government planning ... in the face of the growing cancer burden in our community.
“We are calling for treatment to be delivered within recommended time frames at a location within reasonable travelling distance from a patient’s home, and at a cost that patients can afford.”
The report also recommends NSW Health issues long-overdue radiotherapy planning documents, purchase services from private providers, provides better financial assistance for country patients who travel up to several hundred kilometres for treatment, and boosts the number of statewide radiotherapy machines to 69 by 2012.
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