‘Unsuitable’: Why the Limestone Coast Local Health Network shot down a Mount Gambier radiation treatment centre
South East cancer patients will be forced to seek treatment up to five hours away in Adelaide or interstate after a plan to establish a local radiation centre was quashed by the state government.
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South East residents have been left feeling like “second class citizens” after the state government knocked back funding for a Mount Gambier radiation treatment centre, forcing cancer patients to travel up to five hours to seek treatment.
A letter from state Health Minister Chris Picton listed recruitment, patient care and equipment maintenance difficulties as reasons why the “unsuitable” centre could not go ahead in the South East, despite funding being allocated towards establishing it from the federal government.
The decision means patients will be forced to continue making a four-hour round trip to Warrnambool or a five-hour drive to Adelaide for cancer radiation treatment.
Minister Picton said the viability of the centre was considered by the Limestone Coast Local Health Network and he has not sought to change the conclusion that was reached.
“The Board, which was appointed by the previous Liberal Government, decided instead that federal funds should be prioritised for increasing other cancer services on the health site,” he said.
The decision has been slammed by the Limestone Coast Radiation Treatment Working Group and Member for Barker Tony Pasin, who said they were disappointed by the “weak response” given as to why the bid was knocked back.
Mr Pasin said the most rejection letter indicated the state government was acting on the advice of the LCLHN with the door for the radiation centre “not only closed, but locked”.
Limestone Coast Local Health Network chair Grant King defended the early rejection of the proposal and said the board had not been given access to a detailed business case study until December 2022.
Mr King said the “door” had never been closed, but said some of the early concerns raised had not been addressed in the business case study.
“We may not have the capability to manage people who become ill as a consequence of their radiation therapy,” Mr King said.
“Potentially they will need to be uplifted.”
In April of 2019, former Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced $63.4m for 13 sites in need of new radiation therapy services, including Mount Gambier.
During a community forum held in December 2022, residents learned a tender to establish the radiation treatment centre from the ICON Group had failed, because the federal government would not support the project without funding from the state government.
Australian and New Zealand ICON Cancer Centre chief executive Paul Fenton said the tender required roughly $3m annually from the state government to support its “operating expense”.
Mr Pasin and members of the Limestone Coast Radiation Treatment Working Group questioned the government’s excuses, particularly as the ICON Group run the Warrnambool treatment centre.
“Those bullet points are excuses searching for a problem,” Mr Pasin said.
City of Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin and member of the working group said ICON would be more than capable of addressing the local health network’s concerns.
Mr King intends to visit Warrnambool next week to discuss their radiation treatment centre.
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