Townsville and the Far North will benefit from a $70.1 million investment in rural and regional cancer facilities and equipment from the Commonwealth Government's Regional Cancer Centre program.
Survival rates for people suffering from cancer are lower in rural and remote communities. With some cancers, patients living in rural and remote areas across Australia are up to three times more likely to die within five years of diagnosis than their urban counterparts.
The funding announced today will work towards improving the services and care for the more than 18,400 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Queensland each year.
Townsville Hospital will receive $67.5 million to enhance the cancer centre to improve access to comprehensive cancer services for people in North Queensland. The funding will provide for:
* Three radiotherapy bunkers;
* Two new linear accelerators;
* PET/CT scanner; and
* 26 additional chemotherapy treatment chairs - 23 for adult patients and three for paediatric patients.
The funding will double the existing radiotherapy bunkers to six, and increase the number of linear accelerators to five.
Townsville Hospital will have increased capacity to provide additional chemotherapy treatment places for adult and paediatric cancer patients, procedures for medical oncology and haematology services, high quality diagnostic imaging services with the acquisition of a PET/CT scanner, a brachytherapy suite, and expansion of space to provide increased clinical trials capacity.
Mt Isa Hospital will receive $2.6 million for an additional building to house enhanced tele-oncology and chemotherapy treatment services and provide space for three new chemotherapy treatment chairs.
These investments in Townsville and Mt Isa will see treatment for an estimated extra 828 radiotherapy patients per year and an estimated extra 14,500 chemotherapy treatments per year.
While Australia has better overall cancer survival rates than comparable countries, there is still unacceptable variation for some people, depending on the type of cancer, a person's socioeconomic status or where they live.
It is of great concern that for the 30 per cent of Australians living in rural and remote areas, outcomes are worse than for people living in the city.
The Rudd Government's $560 million investment in regional cancer centres will enable rural and regional Australians to have better access to essential cancer services closer to home.
A network of regional cancer centres that expands services and links with specialised cancer centres in metropolitan areas will better support and service all Australians and help close the gap in cancer outcomes between urban and regional Australians.
Today's announcement shows what can be achieved when the Australian community has a Federal Government who will make investments to enhance health services across the country.
It also builds on additional investment in cancer services across Queensland:
* Funding to recruit, train and employ new breast cancer nurses in Cairns, Mackay, Mount Isa, Gympie, Hervey Bay, Gladstone, Kingaroy, Warwick, Dalby and Roma;
* Upgrades to BreastScreen Queensland's services including:
* $865,000 for a digital mobile van to provide screening to the South East region of Queensland. The upgraded service has been in operation since November 2009.
* $1.2 m for the establishment and testing of a Central Picture Archiving and Communication System ahead of a state-wide introduction.
* $838,000 to commission a fully digital four-wheeled drive mobile service to provide breast screening to women in rural and remote Far North Queensland.
Under the National Health and Hospital plan, the Rudd Government would take on 60 per cent of funding for capital upgrades for hospitals.
The Rudd Government's plan will see health services funded nationally and run locally through local hospital networks to deliver better outcomes for local communities.