Radiotherapy Programs

The Clinician’s Guide to Radiation Oncology

The Faculty of Radiation Oncology at The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists have developed a guide to assist medical practitioners understand the role and use of radiotherapy. The Guide covers each of the common tumour sites, paediatrics, oncological emergencies as well as explaining the common side-effects of radiotherapy and their management The guide can be found here: http://www.ranzcr.edu.au/faculty/about/clinicians_guide.cfm.

Radiotherapy Business Process Improvement Program

Since May 2006, The Cancer Institute NSW has worked in conjunction with the NSW Health Statewide Services Development Branch and the NSW Public Radiation Oncology Treatment Centres (ROTCs) to improve access to radiotherapy through Radiotherapy Business Improvement Strategy (RT BIS) to review and improve business processes and patient flows. The project was completed in October 2007.

The principle objective of the RT BIS was to provide patients with increased access to radiotherapy treatment through better-coordinated and more cost-effective service delivery. The RT BIS demonstrated that extra capacity was theoretically available to provide radiation therapy to cancer patients in NSW, given the ongoing utilisation of the process improvement approach applied during the project.

By the end of the project, all participating centres demonstrated a measurable and theoretically sustainable increase in capacity of 16 per cent across all units.

The development of packaged electronic business tools, supported by distribution to participating sites and targeted education sessions has been identified as an initial strategy to sustain the benefits of RTBIS program. To realise this, a project has been undertaken by the Cancer Institute NSW to roll out the business tools developed during the RTBIS to promote Operational Excellence in Radiation Oncology Treatment Centres. The business tools, deployed across NSW in 2009 represent the final stage of the strategy, and are intended to provide ongoing operational support for centres to sustain the benefits of the RT BIS into the future. This is particularly important due to the benefits identified in relation to enhanced capacity, reduced waiting times and enable easier data extraction.

A summary of the RTBIS report.

Radiotherapy Joint Advisory Committee

The Radiotherapy Joint Advisory Committee (RJAC) was established by the Cancer Institute NSW and the NSW Department of Health in 2005 to provide advice on the provision of radiation oncology services in NSW.

The final meeting of the committee in its original form occurred in late 2009. As for many other New South Wales Oncology Groups (NSWOG), a revised project oriented consultation approach will be developed in 2010.