Charlotte Varcoe
THE reallocation of $4.3 million for radiation treatment in Mount Gambier has been put on hold until further investigations are complete.
Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton met with local members earlier this week to discuss the concerns and reasoning behind the reallocation.
The funds were announced under the Federal Government in 2019, which were specifically for radiation treatment in Mount Gambier, however, due to a lack of State Government support the application was not successful.
Recently it was announced the current State Government would stick by the previous decision on the advice given by the local health network and would instead use the funds to further cancer treatments already in place at the Mount Gambier and Districts Hospital.
Member for Barker Tony Pasin alongside Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell and Member for MacKillop Nick McBride met with Mr Picton and the Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) chairperson Grant King to discuss the future of the funds.
Issues such as staffing the facility and ongoing costs were also discussed with the State Government concerned the initial cost of $1.5m had doubled since 2019 to $3m.
The LCLHN will now investigate the workings of a radiation therapy service in Mount Gambier starting immediately.
Mount Gambier Radiation Therapy working party member Richard Harry said it was fantastic to hear the reallocation of the funds had not been committed to and that there was still hope.
“As far as the money being earmarked to stay for radiation therapy for the time being, that is just fantastic,” Mr Harry told The Border Watch.
“Those of us who are on the working group are individuals with a few representatives of cancer support groups but it is a group of people who have come out of the community and are fighting for something they believe in.”
Mr Harry said the ongoing costs were worth it for the community and noted he understood the increase.
“If you look at how prices have gone up since 2019 and with inflation happening I realise the impact of an increase but there would be so much more productivity with people staying within the area so in theory it could work because people would be able to make an income and continue to pay taxes,” he said.
“I don’t think we have any other option but to work to get radiation therapy down here and our working party will continue to push like crazy because we believe we have the community behind us.”
Mr Bell said ultimately he would like to have radiation therapy services here in Mount Gambier, yet the proposal needed to “stack up” in terms of the number of people in need for the service and what treatments would also be needed.
“Ideally I wanted a radiation service provided in Mount Gambier but what that looks like and how it comes together, I need experts to find that out,” Mr Bell said.
“At this point I don’t know if radiation therapy is possible here because there are conflicting opinions and I am not an expert in the field but I would like to see it be established because our community is growing and we need to offer the services that the second largest city in the State should offer.”
Mr Bell said he commended the working party on its efforts to rally for the service and its commitment to the current petition which was spread throughout the region.
“The working party is doing wonderful work but there needs to be more clarity around the number of people who would be treated and what that treatment would be, which is the biggest block for the services approval at the moment,” he said.
Mr King confirmed Mr Bell’s comments and said the investigation into whether the service would be beneficial was ongoing and began prior to Christmas.
He said the outcome of the meeting was confirmation that the health network needed to continue to pursue information relevant to cancer services in a general sense in Mount Gambier and it agreed to continue to do some work in that space.
“We had some initial concerns around our clinical capability and we still have questions to ask but we will continue to ask those questions so we have as much information as possible,” Mr King said.
“This is particularly around numbers, infrastructure and cost and a whole range of things that will be important in a solid business case for radiation therapy going forward.
“We will continue that work and that was confirmed in the meeting earlier this week.”
He said more “homework” needed to be done to answer questions the health network had before moving forward.
Also speaking on the outcome, Mr Pasin said it now came down to whether the Limestone Coast community deserved the service which he said it did.
“The health network suggesting the original proposal was not seen is not true, it was shared with SA Health and commented on by a local surgeon,” Mr Pasin said.
“I think the health network is looking for excuses but we should look prospectively and ultimately this decision comes down to the State Health Minister.
“We need this service delivered for Mount Gambier.”
Currently there is no timeline for the investigation to be completed.
