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A CANCER CENTRE FOR DUBBO.
Friday 13.05.2016 to Sunday 15.05.2016 | Dubbo Weekender
Seeds of a great idea Garry Braithwaite, Dubbo resident and prostate cancer patient, hopes broader treatment options are included in the push for a cancer centre in Dubbo. Deciding the standard radiotherapy path was not for him, his own research unearthed Bracytherapy, which minimises treatment downsides – including long periods away from family – and begs the question, why aren’t patients made aware of it? WORDS John Ryan ANCER sufferers in Dubbo and the state’s west are suffering from years of neglect when it comes to cancer treatment services. Despite servicing more than 200,000 people, Dubbo Hospital is lagging far behind centres such Orange which has a smaller catchment area of potential patients. Added to the pain, Orange is less than three hours from Sydney, whereas Dubbo patients have an extra 90 minutes travel time on top of that, or three hours for the round trip, and patients travelling five hours just to get to Dubbo are particularly disadvantaged. Many cancer sufferers in remote communities such as Bourke and Brewarrina, who’d likely travel to Dubbo for treatment, are choosing to die at home rather than go to Orange or Sydney, an indictment on federal government spending priorities. The state government is pouring massive amounts of money in the Dubbo Hospital redevelopment, they’ll pay for the cost of running an integrated cancer centre if the commonwealth bothers to stump up the money for the capital costs, estimated at about $50 million. Parkes MP Mark Coulton has been pushing this issue for years but, holding a safe coalition seat, his advocacy efforts aren’t resonating as loudly as other members who hold their seat with slim margins – just look at the $50 billion committed to build submarines in South Australia, a huge expenditure many claim is more to do with keeping a few coalition MPs in parliament than anything else. One local calling for better cancer services is Garry Braithwaite. His advice after receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer was to receive courses of radiation at Orange, a move which would have seen him have to live down there while undergoing his treatment, away from family and friends while being subjected to severe sickness just from side-effects. The 81 year-old didn’t want to subject himself to that ordeal, especially after hearing so many stories where sufferers felt the radiation treatments were worse than the ‘cure’. “I’d heard so many bad things
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about it because it’s such a sensitive area, it can ruin your quality of life well and truly,” Mr Braithwaite said. “It would be virtually living in Orange for a few minutes of treatment here and there. “It’s just too hard even from the economic side of things, especially as we can’t we can’t access it in Dubbo,” he said.
After conducting his own research, he heard about a new prostate treatment being offered by the integrated prostate cancer centre at Sydney’s St George Hospital called Bracytherapy which involves the permanent implantation of tiny radioactive seeds directly into the prostate gland. “I’d heard how successful
the seed treatments were so I looked into that,” Braithwaite said. “Instead of having to virtually move to Orange this meant just four visits to Sydney and no side-effects. “It’s not suitable for everyone but it’s been great for me, I’ve had no pain from the operation at all and couldn’t be happier,”
he said. While incredibly pleased that this treatment has worked so well for him, he’s concerned that not only is nothing like this on offer at home, but that no medical specialists in the West seem to be telling sufferers that these sorts of far less invasive options are even available.