Radiation oncology in Australia: an increasing crisis.

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ABSTRACTThe demands for radiotherapy services continue to increase relentlessly but the capacity to meet these demands is not available. In Australia only 36% of patients with invasive cancer are being treated with megavoltage radiotherapy beams whereas an increase of approximately 50% is necessary to reach a more appropriate level of 55%. A review of the number of radiation oncologists, radiographers and treatment machines shows that the shortage of staff and equipment are consistent with the low utilization of radiotherapy in Australia. Staff and equipment are fully occupied and lack the capacity to appreciably increase treatment rates. A 50% increase in the number Of radiation oncologists is required to reach the recommended number of 7 per million population for service commitments only. This increase is also necessary to adequately treat the additional 50% of patients who would benefit from appropriate modern radiotherapy. Similar increases in therapy radiographer staff numbers and treatment machines will also be required if these additional patients are to be treated. A greatly expanded training, recruitment and re‐equipment programme is urgently required.