The Riverina Cancer Care Centre which opened in 2002 was built using $3million raised by communities including Narrandera yet is now the only facility in NSW leaving patients out of pocket.
It was the first regional cancer care centre in NSW and is now the only one that requires patients to pay for their treatment.
Last week the state government announced there were would be no out-of-pocket expenses for patients at a new cancer care centre in Griffith which is due to open in April next year.
It came after months of lobbying by independent politicians, Murray MP Helen Dalton and Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr.
Dr McGirr, a former health executive, welcomed the announcement regarding Griffith but said patients at the Riverina Cancer Care Centre (RCCC) in Wagga Wagga deserved the same arrangement.
“It’s just not good enough,” Dr McGirr said.
“The community raised the funds to build the building for the radiotherapy service 20 years ago and right from the start there’s been an out-of-pocket expense. It was the first regional radiotherapy service — prior to that people went to Sydney, so having it was a huge break-through.
“Fast forward 10-15 years and the state government has put up and established cancer services itself in other parts of regional NSW. Yet In those services people are effectively bulk-billed — they don’t have out-of-pocket costs and that’s left Wagga as an outlier.”
Damien Williams, the chief operating officer at Cancer Care Associates, which runs the RCCC, says it is time for the state government to provide support.
“No longer can the community be relied upon. They’ve been fantastic in the past, but it’s not their role. Community fundraising is not how a cancer facility should be supported in 2022.”
A spokesperson for Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor said the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) already had an agreement with the Cancer Care Partner Group to ensure patients had affordable access to the Wagga Wagga facility.
Mr Williams said an agreement was reached with the state government in 2003 that ensured chemotherapy patients with no private health insurance and in-patients needing radiation at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital would not have any out-of-pocket expenses.
But that only equated to about one per cent of patients at the facility and that the majority still had to financially contribute for their treatment.
The NSW Cancer Council’s Wagga Wagga-based community programs coordinator Sheridan Evans said the funding should be universal.
“Cancer doesn’t discriminate between people. If you get hit with a cancer diagnosis and then you get hit with huge medical bills, you don’t get a choice about whether you want treatment or not — you have to have it.”
Dr McGirr said the out-of-pocket expense issue had been on his radar since the service opened in 2002. He said he understood the MLHD was working on an arrangement with the NSW government.
Mr Williams also hoped further funding would be forthcoming to allow the RCCC to be redeveloped.
“The Riverina Cancer Care Centre has had no infrastructure funding in the last 20 years. That has been left to community and the community has done a fantastic job, but we hope we can work towards and work with both state and federal governments to change that scenario.”
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 6 October 2022.
