A Message from the New Dean of the Faculty of Radiation Oncology

A Strong Voice is Essential

As the newly appointed Dean of the Faculty of Radiation Oncology, I am looking forward to working with and supporting Faculty members over the next two years.

One of my top priorities is to ensure that members have a strong voice and are actively engaged in the Faculty. I believe this is critical in enabling the Faculty to promote the value of radiation oncology in cancer treatment and radiation therapy more broadly.

Each of us has a role to play in advocating for the profession and our patients as part of a process of continuous improvement—as individuals, as a college and on the global stage.

There are many opportunities to become involved in, and add your voice to, the work of the Faculty, by participating in our educational events, contributing to our research efforts, or volunteering for committees.

I am particularly keen to foster research within the Faculty. Robust data is essential for advancing the field of radiation therapy and improving patient outcomes. It is also critical for enabling evidence-based advocacy to government and other stakeholders and facilitating collaboration with other organisations and institutions.

Each of us has a role to play in advocating for the profession and our patients as part of a process of continuous improvement—as individuals, as a college and on the global stage.

The College’s advocacy work in action

While much of the College’s advocacy work occurs behind the scenes, its intrinsic value cannot be overestimated.

In its advocacy work, the College regularly engages with a wide variety of stakeholders at both the micro- and macro- levels, with the overarching aim of informing and influencing policy, promoting professional practice standards and ensuring quality services for consumers.

Of particular note are the outcomes of the Medicare Benefit Schedule Review (MBS) which is nearing conclusion after a lengthy process. The MBS fee setting structure is critical in enabling fair, modern and sustainable radiation therapy services in Australia.

The College has strongly advocated that radiation therapy items in the MBS reflect contemporary practice and are reimbursed accordingly, or otherwise risk hampering the delivery of excellent patient care.

There will be significant implications for radiation oncology and radiation therapy generally, when the Australian Department of Health (DoH) finally releases and implements the updated MBS descriptors and associated fees.

We anticipate that there will be wholesale changes with the deletion of all current items and the creation of new item numbers to reflect current work practices and modern techniques and treatments of radiation therapy.

There will also be a substantial reduction in the number of MBS item numbers divided by complexity levels, which will apply in both external beam radiation therapy and brachytherapy.

These welcome changes are the result of much hard work by the College over many years, and once released and implemented by the DoH, will necessitate substantial changes to billing processes, and IT systems at each site will need to be reprogrammed with the new numbers.

The Faculty of Radiation Oncology will work with the DoH and our members to make this changeover as seamless as possible, and you can assist this process by encouraging your site to prepare for this change.

Brachytherapy is an important priority

#CloseTheCareGap is the College’s call to action for the Radiation Oncology Health Program Grants (ROHPG) Scheme to be reinstated for brachytherapy. Highlighted during the recent World Cancer Day in February, radiation oncologists expressed their deep concern around challenges in delivering brachytherapy, particularly for gynaecological cancers.

In the College’s pre-budget submission for 2023 Federal Budget, we shared some data from our facilities surveys that illustrate the changing landscape. Total brachytherapy courses delivered to patients has fallen by around one quarter since 2017, when government funding of brachytherapy via ROHPG was cut.

Brachytherapy is predominantly delivered in metropolitan areas (88.2 per cent in 2020), with a loss of service in some centres— particularly in the private sector within this timeframe. This is in stark contrast to provisions for External Beam Radiation with real growth in both facility and linear accelerator numbers in all sectors (metro, regional, public and private).

These factors have implications for the delivery of brachytherapy today and in the future.

In the meantime, the College continues to advocate for issues around brachytherapy including funding, work force, quality, training and professional development.

Robust data to underpin advocacy work is critical

Many other priorities requiring advocacy by the College rely upon robust data. Prior to the College’s biennial facilities survey, there was no national repository of year-on-year tracking data that captured emerging trends and issues in radiation oncology services.

The data collected via the survey provides strong and reliable evidence that enables the College to speak with a credible and trustworthy voice to government and other stakeholders.

This evidence is not only vital for the profession, but is also a valuable resource for, and is referenced by, clinicians from other related disciplines.

The longitudinal findings of this survey for our New Zealand colleagues have recently been published by Melissa James and we will provide updates for Australia and New Zealand soon.

However, the next facilities survey is imminent and will be sent to all sites and workplaces in March. Please encourage your site to complete the survey and help to ensure that it gets to the right person, so that the survey is a comprehensive and accurate representation of radiation oncology in our region.

Reference:

1 The changing radiation Oncology landscape in New Zealand. James M et al. JMIRO 66 (2022): 694-700