ALimestone Coast Radiation Treatment Working Group is fighting for a radiation treatment centre to be established in the Limestone Coast.

Several group members convened last week and met with Shadow Regional Health Services Minister Penny Pratt and Shadow Health Minister Ashton Hurn.

The group was formed following a community forum hosted by Member for Barker Tony Pasin in a push for a Limestone Coast Cancer Treatment Centre in December 2022.

“These are people that are passionate about supporting people and are supporting people through their journey,” Mr Pasin said.

“This group is at the frontline, and they would like the decision makers to respect their lived experiences.”

A petition was launched this week to encourage the State Government to support the push for radiation treatment services in the Limestone Coast.

The former Coalition Government committed $4.3m in 2019 to fund the radiation equipment required to service the Limestone Coast community.

Despite Federal funding for the proposal, plans to deliver radiation treatment to the region were halted when the State Government refused to support the proposal with ongoing funding to cover out of pocket costs for patients.

Limestone Coast cancer patients must travel to Adelaide or Warrnambool to receive radiation treatment, which is often delivered in 15-minute treatments every weekday, for eight to 10 weeks.

There are reports of Limestone Coast patients needing to stay in caravan parks during the duration of their treatment, forced to leave their families, friends, pets and jobs behind.

“People in Adelaide go home to their homes and families or their backup, but the people from the country, they lose all of that,” a working group member said

Mr Pasin wrote to Health and Wellbeing Minister Chris Picton regarding the need for this service and recently received a response letter.

The letter said the Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) acknowledged regional and remote communities were disadvantaged due to needing to travel for treatment and the proposal to establish a radiation therapy service in the Mount Gambier and Districts Health Services was thoroughly investigated, however it was deemed “unsustainable”.

The letter outlined challenges identified in establishing the radiation therapy centre, which included recruitment and retention of highly specialised staff in a regional area and equipment maintenance, particularly access to timely breakdown repair in a regional location.

Further noted challenges included governance and clinical oversight requirements and the ability to manage patients who become ill from radiation therapy and the ability of a regional health network to rapidly transfer patients to a tertiary hospital.

Ms Pratt said she was informed by a Radiation Treatment Working Group member they felt like “second-class citizens”.

“Our ambition, through policy and campaigns, is to ensure that country people do not feel like that and they can access high-quality health services, closer to home,” she said.

Ms Pratt said the Radiation Treatment Working Group members were the heroes of the campaign and said it was a pleasure to see the momentum the group had already built with local representatives to chase the outcome.

“We understand this is a Keith to Kingston campaign that 200 people a year are going to require, sadly, radiation treatment or access to a similar service,” she said.

“I know Mount Gambier and Limestone Coast residents are fiercely independent, you do not want to be told by the city what you can and cannot have and you deserve the reputation of being the second biggest city in our state and the funding needs to reflect that.

“I am here in support of your call to arms, your working group, your campaign, your momentum, to fight for a health service.”

Ms Hurn said there was lots of work to do and said there had been some very positive conversations within the group.

“You can really feel the sense of passion there is for the delivery of further services,” she said.

“We needed to come down here and get an understanding as to why it is that consecutive government, frankly, have said no to this service.

“We understand there is a call to arms and the community are saying very loudly they want this to be reconsidered.”

Radiation Treatment Working Group member Lachlan Haynes from Naracoorte believed the future growth of the region depended on services such as the radiation treatment centre.

“This is something that will also build our region and put us on the map as a destination of desire for people in future skills shortages or just job employment growth and the growth of our region,” Mr Haynes said.

“When you talk to city people one of the biggest requirements for them when they look at jobs or future employment opportunities for themselves, is what does that area do, what are the provisions, what is the service gap.”

Mr Pasin said he felt for a long time that this campaign had been pushing on closed doors and said he was very grateful for Ms Pratt and Ms Hurn as they were finally pushing on an open door.

“This is a community campaign, it is not a campaign by me, or Ashton, or Penny, this is the community saying, ‘enough is enough, we are sick of seeing our community members having to dislocate their lives at the most stressful point in their life and live in Adelaide for treatment that people in Adelaide have in their lunch break’,” he said.

The petition will be available to sign online via https://chng.it/r4kn2nK6yh and in most town centres across the Limestone Coast until Easter.

Email radiotheraplimes@gmail.com for further information.