Community members and Opposition politicians have reacted with dismay to the news that a radiation therapy service will not be established in Mount Gambier to assist around 150 cancer patients each year.
An independent feasibility study released on Tuesday has found that establishing a radiation therapy service is not currently a safe, sustainable or financially viable option.
The 150 patients will continue to be required to access such treatment in either Warrnambool or Adelaide.
The Radiation Therapy Working Party was briefed on the findings on Tuesday night with convenor Lachie Haynes saying there were many disappointed people in attendance.
Mr Haynes said the working party had gathered 20,000 signatures on a petition to State Parliament which called on the radiation therapy service to be provided in Mount Gambier.
Shadow Regional Health Minister Penny Pratt said pressure should continue to be applied as South Australia was the sole state without such a service in a regional area.
According to fellow Liberal frontbencher and Mount Gambier MLC Ben Hood, the feasibility report has a number of inconsistencies.
“The feasibility study raises eyebrows with claims of unviability in the Limestone Coast due to not meeting ‘best practice’,” Mr Hood said.
“Yet, similar operating services in Griffith, Mildura and Warrnambool are deemed ‘clinically safe and operationally sustainable.’
“Our own health system and the Griffith radiation service rely on a ‘fly in, fly out’ workforce.
“So, why does the study’s workforce standard seem so perplexing? Are other regional health services using FIFO not meeting ‘best practice’?
“Regional South Australia continues to be treated as a second-class citizen when it comes to healthcare.
“The report dismisses a $1.5m annual ‘top-up’ from government funds as ‘not financially viable’. Yet, many parts of our state health system need such funds.
“This $1.5m pales compared to the $40m footy oval in Lyndoch for just 2000 people.
“The Limestone Coast community should be asking the LCLHN and Premier Peter Malinauskas: ‘Is our health simply not worth it?’”
Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Chris Picton said the Governing Board of the Limestone Coast Local Health Network had accepted the advice of the independent consultant that a dedicated radiation therapy treatment centre in the Limestone Coast is not feasible.
“This decision was reached after an independent feasibility study and an extensive consultation process involving more than 500 community members and various stakeholder groups,” Minister Picton said.
“This is a decision made through the local health decision-making system set up under the former Liberal government, which established local health boards to make such decisions locally and not from Adelaide.
“This comprehensive process is in stark contrast to the outright rejection of the proposal under the former Federal and State Liberal Governments in May 2021.
“I welcome the LCLHN Board decision to endorse several common-sense recommendations within the study to continue to grow local cancer services for the region.”
Design and planning of the new Mount Gambier Cancer Care Centre has been on hold while the feasibility study into radiation therapy services was undertaken.
The LCLHN has announced it will pursue changes to cancer treatment regimen, reduced requirements for travel, and the establishment of dedicated local cancer leadership, as well advocate for adequate compensation for travel.
Newly-appointed LCLHN Governing Board Chairman Dr Andrew Saies has welcomed the report’s findings and thanked everyone involved in the extensive process.
The Adelaide-based orthopaedic surgeon took up the role at the beginning of July.
“Mount Gambier Hospital currently delivers a best practice cancer care service with two resident oncologists, oncology nurse practitioner, cancer care coordinators, chemotherapy nurses, breast care, prostate cancer, and palliative care nurses,” Dr Saies said.
“They are supported by a team of allied health professionals and GPs in the region, visiting haemotologists and radiation oncologists.
“The independent study has found there are improvements we can make to reduce the requirement for travel and the associated impact that travel has on local people receiving cancer treatment.
“Independent consultants looked at private radiation therapy services operating elsewhere in regional Australia and found that using a fly-in fly-out work force was a compromise to the optimum continuum of care available in metropolitan hospitals and centres.
“Our board and our clinicians do not want cancer patients in our region to have less than optimum care for this life-changing disease.
“Patient safety and clinical care must be our priority and the study found extreme work force risks in the proposed service.
“Further, those risks cannot be mitigated by simply spending money – care is more important than convenience.”
Member for Barker Tony Pasin said it was an “outrage that South Australia is the only state that does not have a regional radiation treatment service and it’s holding back health outcomes for our community”.
“There are three private service providers standing ready to provide a service in the Limestone Coast as they do in dozens of regional locations across the country,” he said.
“The State Health Minister and his bureaucracy must stop treating regional South Australia with such contempt and start listening to what the community want and need.
“Twenty thousand people signed a petition calling on the State Government to make radiation treatment available locally. For the State Government to ignore these calls on the basis that other comparative regional services in other States are not clinically safe or financially viable is simply ridiculous.
“I have been fighting for radiation treatment for the Limestone Coast for over five years and I’m willing to keep fighting until it is achieved because the excuses, I have been given to date are simply not plausible.”
Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell also echoed his disappointment with the decision.
“Whilst I am initially disappointed with the outcome of the report, the community and I need time to read and fully understand its content and the recommendations arising from it,” he said.
“Many families who have loved ones currently undergoing treatment will be understandably upset.
“My immediate concern is how we support patients who are currently receiving treatment and who would have benefited from this service.
“I will be meeting with the LCLHN Board to understand the best way forward to immediately assist patients as well how we can work towards getting radiation therapy services in the future.
“With the next state election only 20 months away I intend to work with both sides of government to keep this issue at the forefront of their priorities.
“The Radiation Working Group are to be commended for their ongoing passionate advocacy for Limestone Coast residents.”
