A new report on cancer surgery waiting times in public hospitals has found the vast majority of patients are receiving surgery within a month.
The National Health Performance Authority’s (NHPA) study focused on bowel, breast and lung cancer, which are the three most common types of cancer.
The report said 13,697 people were operated on for the cancers at public hospitals in 2012-13 and showed that 92 per cent had their planned surgery within 30 days and 97 per cent within 45 days.
NHPA executive director Michael Frost said it was an overall improvement, but not for everyone.
“There is still an important figure in that 1,028 patents waited longer than 30 days for their surgery and 346 patents waited more the 45 days for their surgery,” Mr Frost said.
The research showed that some patients faced longer waits at a small number of hospitals.
Across the three types of cancer surgery, five public hospitals took up to 60 days, two up to 75 days and three up to 90 days before at least 90 per cent of their patients received their surgeries.
Hospital location not a big factor
Hospital remoteness did not significantly impact on waiting times, with regional and city hospital patients experiencing similar median waiting times (the time it took for 50 per cent of patients to receive their surgery) for all three types of cancer surgery.
NHPA said cancer was a major cause of premature death and the second most common cause of death overall in Australia, and timely interventions such as surgery could prevent such deaths.
“Waiting times for surgery [are] a measure of access to treatment that can help maintain quality of life,” the report said.
“The patients covered in this report were assigned to planned surgery lists by surgeons as urgent or semi-urgent cases.”
Australian Medical Association (AMA) vice-president Stephen Parnis said it seemed most cancer patients were getting surgery within four weeks of diagnosis.
“But the concern is this: as we prioritise cancer patients to the top of the queue, those people who are slightly lower down the queues are more likely to miss out,” Dr Parnis said.
The report also found that 216 bowel cancer patients waited longer than 45 days for their surgeries, compared to 102 breast cancer patients and 28 lung cancer patients.
Data not does not ‘tell the whole story’
Bowel Cancer Australia said the report showed there was room for improvement in terms of patients’ waiting times for surgery.
But it also argued the data did not tell the whole story for bowel cancer patients, with no information available on private hospital waiting times.
“We also need to know the facts on patients treated in private hospitals as they represent about 60 per cent of total cancer surgeries,” chief executive Julien Wiggins said.
Mr Wiggins said that although the majority of bowel cancer patients received their surgery within the recommended 30 days was good news, he would like to see more comprehensive data detailing the full bowel cancer journey from screening to diagnosis and treatment.
“Time on the hospital waiting list is just one component of cancer care,” he said.
“For example, we really need to know how long people are waiting between a positive bowel cancer screening test or seeing their doctor about symptoms and accessing colonoscopies that will provide a definitive diagnosis.”
Mr Wiggins said with bowel cancer survival rates lagging behind that of other common cancers, it was reasonable for the bowel cancer community to be asking more questions of the healthcare system.