Travelling four hours for cancer treatment became overwhelming for Annette Mary Porter as the effects of her fortnightly appointments started to take hold.
Key points:
- Griffith is celebrating the opening of a much-anticipated cancer care centre
- Patients were previously forced to travel hundreds of kilometres for care
- Bulk-billing for services secured after community push
“Both my parents had cancer and they had to travel,” Ms Porter said.
Ms Porter, who requires radiotherapy for stage-one breast cancer, had to travel from her NSW town of Griffith because it didn’t have a publicly-funded radiation oncology service.
But that changed this month when Ms Porter became one of the first patients at the city’s first bulk-billed cancer treatment centre — the Griffith Cancer Care Centre.
She said swapping her previous 300-kilometre round trip to Wagga Wagga for a trip around the corner was “huge”.
“I used to have to travel two hours, now it’s two minutes,” she said.
The Griffith Cancer Care Centre was due to open late last year but was delayed for administrative and licensing issues.
Ms Porter said she was “so happy” when she got a phone call from her oncologist announcing the new centre had opened.
“I was awfully tempted to jump the counter and kiss him [oncologist] because I no longer had to drive hours back and forth for my treatment,” she said.
She said the proximity of the new centre would save her thousands of dollars in accommodation and travel costs.
She said being forced to travel worsened the already difficult and traumatic experience.
“I have been so terrified of the treatment but 1686570974 it will be here, it will be at home and somewhere where the people I love are.”
Patient benefits
Cancer Council volunteer Grant Hearn said his family needed to travel more 1,000 kilometres to Sydney for his wife Denise’s treatment after her diagnosis.
He said his wife’s experience prompted him to get involved with the push to build a treatment centre in Griffith.
He said the opening of the centre three years after it was approved was “absolutely huge” for the region.
“This is the biggest thing to happen in the Riverina as far as cancer treatment goes,” he said.
“It takes off a lot of the extra weight that you’re carrying, to have something local and to not stress about travel.”
No out-of-pocket costs
Patients travelling to Wagga Wagga, the previous closest treatment centre, had to cover upfront costs for treatment.
A community push by Murray MP Helen Dalton and care advocates resulted in the state and federal governments last year committing to funding bulk-billing at Griffith’s new centre — a service still unavailable in Wagga Wagga.
Cancer centre director Damien Williams said the bulk-billing would reduce financial pressure on vulnerable patients.
“It is a wonderful win for our patients and for the community,” he said.