24th April - Cost of health care

Pat had lymphoma cancer a few years ago. He was treated at Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac). The people and the facilities were outstanding. We felt fortunate to be in such good care.

Now we are in the Eastern Health system and the experience is very different. Both are public hospitals and yet the quality of the services markedly different. No dedicated oncologist, no day nurse, waiting in the corridor before receiving treatment, not enough nurses at Day Oncology, treatment room is dark, depressing, and uncomfortable, etc, etc. Worst of all is that the attitudes of the doctors and nurses seem to be impacted by being under-resourced. They come across as stressed, short of time and resentful. So different to the more open, caring, and empathetic manner at Peter Mac. Why is that and is that fair?

We asked the Oncologist about this at our last appointment. The answer, Peter Mac receives more funding. Argh! We also asked who the “team” was that would support Pat. He had a team of medical services at Peter Mac. “There is no funding for that”. The difference in support is also across the cancer types. I asked why there wasn’t a dedicated nurse, just like Breast Cancer patients have. Again, no funding.

And this discrepancy is everywhere. I was talking to another carer in the waiting room. He had moved his mother from the western suburbs to his home so that she could be treated at Eastern Health. He said that it was a far better service. Likewise the northern suburbs Austin hospital received no funding for cancer treatment.

We are rocked that Pat’s quality of health care comes down to limited budgets. A not-for-profit called PanCare has been created to attempt to fill that gap for upper GI cancer patients. However, they survive on donations, and are not a part of the health care services. They have organised a fundraising event called Unite for Hope. I’ll be walking on 12th June in support. If you would like to make a donation, you can support my walk here: Unite for Hope 2022 - Michelle Zwagerman (pancareuniteforhope.com.au)

So today, after I have written this blog, and while I wait for Pat to receive chemo dose #4, I'll also be writing to both the Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley and the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to demand more funding for health services. I'll let you know what they say in response.