Tasmania Leads Cancer Surgery

South Hobart/Sandy Bay Cricket Club (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A new national directory of cancer surgery waiting times shows Tasmanian hospitals are delivering faster services than many of the biggest hospitals in the country.

The online database, released yesterday, allows Tasmanian cancer patients to compare their hospital's performance with any other hospital in Australia.

The list shows the average wait for breast cancer surgery at the Royal Hobart Hospital is only eight days.

That compared with 12 days at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, 13 days at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital and 16 days at Royal Brisbane Hospital.

The average wait for prostate cancer surgery at the RHH is 28 days, compared with 30 days at Sydney's Prince of Wales, 63 days at Sydney's Royal North Shore and 44 days at Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Senior Hobart oncology physician Professor Ray Lowenthal said the data confirmed that, despite the ongoing concerns about budget cuts in the health system, important procedures were still being carried out within acceptable timeframes.

"The cancer area has been a bit protected because it is such a crucial area, and rightly so," said Prof Lowenthal, clinical professor of oncology at the University of Tasmania.

"The cancer area is not in crisis and people can get treatment in a timely fashion."

The average elective surgery waiting times for various cancers were added to the Federal Government's MyHospitals website yesterday.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said: "Waiting times on MyHospitals enables patients to find out more about local services and helps to drive improvements in hospital performance."

Using data from 2010-11, the website lists the number of days within which half of all patients received their surgery for bladder, bowel, breast, gynaecological, kidney, lung, melanoma and prostate cancer.

Other cancer surgery wait times at the RHH are: bladder, 25 days; bowel, 24 days; gynaecological, 16 days; lung, 11 days; melanoma, 13 days.

Cancer surgery wait times at the Launceston General Hospital are: bladder, 15 days; bowel, 19 days; breast, 11 days; gynaecological, 14 days; kidney, 29 days; melanoma, 11 days; prostate, 76 days.

State president of the Australian Medical Association John Davis said the data was a credit to the staff in Tasmanian hospitals, despite the fact the system was "falling apart".

Mr Davis, however, said the figures did not show the areas of health that were suffering severely because of the budget cuts to the system.

Related articles

• Tasmanian News: Learning The Hard Way With Autism In Tasmania (scotsbob.typepad.com)
• Racial Disparities Revealed In Prostate Cancer Surgery (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Cancer patients can compare waiting times (news.theage.com.au)

No Cash Boost Ailing For Tasmanian Health System

1. 

Australian Nursing Federation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Hopes for a major injection of funds into Tasmania's ailing health system have not been forthcoming, with Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan delivering only a modest boost mirroring the rest of the country.


Health professionals have been calling for a federal takeover of the state's health system or an immediate injection of funds to counter the effects of sweeping State Government budget cuts to the health system.


However, last night's Federal Budget offered no extra favours for Tasmania.


The state will get a 6.7 per cent boost in the next 12 months compared with a national average increase of about 6.4 per cent.


Mr Swan has increased the state's health funding by $18.8 million from $279.6 million for the 2011-12 financial year to $298.4 million for the 2012-13 financial year.


Redevelopment funds for the Royal Hobart Hospital remain in the Budget.

However, no further major health infrastructure projects were announced for Tasmania last night.


Australian Nursing Federation branch secretary Neroli Ellis said the limited federal boost in funding placed further pressure on the State Government when it delivers its Budget on May 17.


"We have around a 5 per cent decrease in State Budget," Ms Ellis said.


"So it [the Federal Budget] is not keeping up with demand."


Ms Ellis said the next "State Budget is crucial now".


"We will be hoping the State Government will address the immediate short-term concerns we have been discussing in the past few months," she said.


Australian Medical Association state president John Davis said health had been generally sheltered from budget cuts however more funds were needed for Tasmania.

Dr Davis and Ms Ellis both welcomed additional national funding which would flow to Tasmanians in the areas of aged care, bowel cancer screening, dental services and electronic health initiatives.


One new initiative, to be rolled out across Australia, will be funding to help patients aged 15 to 24 with emerging psychotic disorders.


During the next financial year $3.5 million will be provided to Tasmania to help establish centres that will provide services to help these patients.


Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said there would be funding to increase the numbers of doctors, nurses and health professionals in Ulverstone on the North-West Coast but did not reveal any further detail.


Australian families will benefit from a $233.7 million investment to continue the rollout of the national, secure eHealth system which will deliver safer and better health services.


Dr Davis welcomed the eHealth funding but said the Budget revealed there would be some costs placed on doctors to use the eHealth infrastructure.


Areas of savings in the Budget include Medicare rebates for cosmetic surgery and private health insurance rebates for some natural therapies.


One of the biggest areas to be hit is Medicare rebates for cosmetic surgery, which have been capped.


The Government will save $96.5 million over four years by capping a range of procedures covered by the extended Medicare safety net.


Under the safety net, the Commonwealth pays 80 per cent of out-of-pocket costs for procedures once a yearly threshold of $1160 has been reached.


Ms Plibersek says some items are being capped "to discourage excessive fees and to prevent people from misusing Medicare to pay for cosmetic surgery".


Items on the hit list include vulvoplasty or labioplasty, minor plastic surgery, varicose vein procedures, reversal of male sterilisation, eye injections, nipple reconstruction and nose work.


At the same time the private health insurance rebate will no longer be paid for natural therapies unless the chief medical officer decides they are "clinically effective".



..............................................................................
If you have found this blog entry entertaining or informative why not subscribe to 
my Feedburner notifications? 
...............................................................................