Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to inform members of a serious deficiency in medical services in my electorate of Robertson. Based on the Central Coast towns of Gosford and Woy Woy, Robertson is a rapidly growing region with a significant percentage of aged people in its population. Despite these facts, there is no public radiotherapy unit on the Central Coast to service the medical needs of my constituents, many of whom are suffering from debilitating and life-threatening cancers. To access public radiotherapy treatment, the people of the Central Coast have three options: firstly, they can choose to pay many thousands of dollars at a private facility in Gosford; secondly, they can choose to travel to the nearest public facilities at hospitals located in Newcastle or North Sydney; and, thirdly, they can choose—or, to put it more accurately, they are forced—to refuse treatment for their cancers. This is an intolerable situation that constitutes a serious deficiency in the public health facilities for many thousands of people.

The Central Coast is part of the Northern Sydney Central Coast Health service area. By 2016, New South Wales Health estimates that there will be approximately 2,596 cancer patients in the area health service region. This amounts to a 30 per cent increase in the number of people requiring treatment for cancer over the period from 2006 to 2016. It is clear from these alarming statistics that something must be done to relieve the severe financial, emotional and practical hardships placed upon my constituents. A public radiotherapy facility must be built in Robertson.

Sadly, there is distressing anecdotal evidence that some Central Coast cancer patients have been forced to forgo life-saving cancer treatment, thereby putting their lives at serious risk. Among the major reasons they do this is that either they cannot afford the costs of private treatment in Gosford or they cannot travel to North Sydney or Newcastle every time they need treatment. This is a scandalous situation that my constituents have suffered for too long.

Compared to their neighbours in the northern Sydney section of the area health service region, the people of the Central Coast experience poorer health and have higher mortality rates. They have high rates of behavioural health risk factors such as smoking and obesity. Importantly, they also have poorer general access to health practitioners, to primary care and to diagnostic and specialist health care than their northern Sydney neighbours.

The disparity between my constituents and the residents of the North Shore is nowhere more starkly illustrated than in the complete lack of radiotherapy services on the Central Coast. A single private radiotherapy service operates in Gosford. In-patients in Gosford Hospital have access to this service but there are many more cancer sufferers who are no longer in-patients who simply cannot afford to pay for treatment at this private facility. The alternative is to travel to hospitals in North Sydney or Newcastle, which are generally at least an hour and a half away on public transport. For many cancer sufferers, some of whom are desperately sick, this is not a desirable or even a possible outcome. Lengthy and frequent trips on public transport to and from treatment have a devastating effect on the finances, working routine, family life and emotional stability of these people.

I intend to take whatever necessary steps there are to remedy this problem. In February this year I met with a local advocacy group that is campaigning for the establishment of a public radiotherapy unit to be located at Gosford Hospital, and I have spoken with them again today. My office has been alerted to instances of severe hardship suffered by local people trying to access radiotherapy treatment. One 67-year-old man was faced with a bill of between $3,500 and $4,500. He was unable to pay until a generous donor provided him with that money.

The services of a radiotherapy unit are required for my electorate. I am determined that the healthcare needs of my constituents will not be compromised in the manner that they are being and have been for so long. I will be making the strongest possible representations to the Minister for Health and Ageing about this matter. The Central Coast must have adequate public radiotherapy services, and I will be fighting very hard to ensure they get them.