The National Oncology Alliance patient rights and roles webinar series – the clinician perspective
Yesterday, 21 July, several highly esteemed cancer clinicians – Medical Oncologist at Border Medical Oncology at the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre Dr Christopher Steer, Professor of Gynaecological Cancer at University of Melbourne Prof Clare Scott, Professor of Cancer Research at Monash University Prof John Zalcberg, and Executive Director of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Prof Grant McArthur – took to the virtual stage to share their opinions and values on the rights and roles of the cancer patients they treat.
The panelists, clearly passionate about doing their best for their patients, were incredibly humble when it came to the role they play in treating cancers. Some even reflected upon their self-perceived “failings” to achieve the lofty standards they set for themselves in saving lives.
When considering person-centred care, shared treatment and management decisions are clearly an important part of patient consults for all who took part in the National Oncology Alliance’s second-panel discussion.
“I would stress the importance of shared decision-making in this process,” Dr Christopher Steer, Medical Oncologist at Border Medical Oncology at the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre said.
Clear communication and time spent with patients to uncover the needs of each individual patient and gauging their depth of clinical understanding of their cancer and options was clearly conveyed by Dr Steer, a private physician.
“We’ve got so many challenges as our cancer treatment world becomes more sophisticated and difficult, providing the information is more challenging, and the health literacy of our patients is crucial,” he shared.
“Adequate assessment yields appropriate care. As an individual, dealing with an individual patient, you need to get to know them more.”
Yet the discussion also re-enforced that defining patient rights and upholding a model of person-centred care consistently is becoming increasingly difficult when practicing medicine within today’s health care frameworks.
When the discussion shifted to all cancer patients getting equal access to potentially life-saving new treatments, there was clear recognitions of the financial constraints and system-level failings – but at what cost?
“The health budget is not infinite,” Prof Grant McArthur, Executive Director of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre stated.
Prof McArthur went on to explain:
“There is rationing. We must have some rationing because we cannot have every innovation that comes through available to everyone because of budgetary constraints – that’s reality. Does that mean patients are missing out? Unfortunately, yes.”
Prof John Zalcberg clearly believes change is needed to deliver better experiences and outcomes for patients.
“We need to continue to think and reform the reimbursement and the support for drugs, new medicines and other innovations in Australia to ensure that patients get rapid access,” Prof John Zalcberg. Professor of Cancer Research at Monash University said.
He explained that the magnitude of this issue in Australia is obvious when it is considered in a global context. He points to Australia falling behind.
“If you are looking at the countries that we are comparing to – we are comparing to France, we are comparing to the UK, we are comparing to Germany, we are comparing to Switzerland – we are comparing to countries that we like to think that we have an equivalent standard of life to, an equivalent society. Yet here they are, we are forty countries down the track and the drug is not available. And it is available in other places. And there are innumerable examples, not one or two,” Prof Zalcberg explained.
“It doesn’t matter what persuasion the government is, the fact is we are Western Society, in a developed country, with a high GDP per patient, and we shouldn’t have to ration drugs like we do. Health is a right, not a privilege.”
The panel agreed that the systems must change to better serve patients because the current approaches are antiquated and no longer delivering the same results.
“We are living in the last century,” Prof Clare Scott, Professor of Gynaecological Cancer at University of Melbourne said.
“There is a lot of work to be done so that we can get evidence together and to also change the way patients are viewed.
“We can make a difference, and we have to.”
If you would like to view the full webinar, click here:
Continue the conversation with us
This is the second webinar in our four-part series.
Our next session will be on Wednesday 28 July at 1 pm and will dive into the rights and roles of Australian cancer patients from the perspectives of industry leaders:
- Bilijana Naumovic, Managing Director at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
- Neil MacGregor, Managing Director, Australia & New Zealand at Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Liz Chatwin, Country President at AstraZeneca
- Jaime McCoy, General Manager at Gilead Sciences
- Stuart Knight, Managing Director at Roche Products Pty Ltd
- Michael Azrak, VP and Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand, Merck Sharp and Dohme (Australia)
All are welcome and registration is free.
Don’t forget to pre-submit your questions for the panel when you complete the registration form, or you can send them to [email protected]