CANCER SERVICES TO BE PROUD OF IN RURAL AUSTRALIA: LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE CLINICAL ONCOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA CANCER SERVICE AUDIT

Recent evidence suggests that there are differences in cancer outcomes between metropolitan and rural/regional services in Australia and internationally. Reasons for these differences are not entirely clear, but as a consequence rural and regional cancer services are on the political agenda in Australia. The report by the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia, Mapping Regional and Rural Oncology Services in Australia, March 2006, explored issues of access and quality of care and made a number of recommendations for improvement. Governments across Australia have initiated cancer service improvement programs, but not always specifically targeting regional disparities. The way forward may be hampered by an existing lack of rural/regional health services research, however some potential solutions are explored. When Martin Luther King quoted the words “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, ” he had in mind a very different disparity than that which faces rural Australians as they look to access the health services that their metropolitan equivalents take for granted. The general principle of the Medicare system, firmly entrenched, is that Australia boasts a “universal healthcare system for all Australians”.1 But how universal is our healthcare system and most particularly, how equitable is the nation’s access to cancer services? The rural healthcare issue is firmly set on the political landscape, with federal and state governments endeavoring to address health issues which have been highlighted in many parts of the country by the deepening drought. For those passionate about healthcare reform in rural Australia, it has been pleasing to see evidence that government bodies like the Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Council and cancer societies such as the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) have placed improvement in rural cancer care firmly on their list of priorities.2,3 It is in this context that COSA produced Mapping Rura