Close the care gap

February 4, marked World Cancer Day, a global uniting movement against cancer, and you may have seen the release of new data revealing the divide between regional and metro areas when it comes to cancer care.

This World Cancer Day, we wanted to let NSW residents know that we’re doing everything we can to change this across our state.

The theme this year is ‘Close the Care Gap’, which looks at the importance of equitable access to healthcare for everyone. At Cancer Council, we believe that all Australians, regardless of where they live or receive cancer treatment should have equal access to cancer care. But we also know that people living in regional and rural NSW are more likely to be diagnosed and less likely to survive cancer than people in metropolitan areas – something that must change.

Cancer outcomes in NSW are among the best in the world, yet for people living in rural and remote NSW, outcomes remain poorer compared to people living in metropolitan areas. Little progress has been made in the past 20 years to close this gap, and evidence clearly demonstrates a person’s experience of cancer is a postcode lottery.

As an organisation that works closely with people affected by cancer in regional NSW, providing essential services such as transport, emergency financial support, accommodation, information, and supportive care, we’re committed to closing this gap.

Over the past year, we have worked with communities across the state to show government what needs to be done to improve cancer care and outcomes outside the major cities – from making it easier to find and access care to reducing the costs to families of a cancer diagnosis.

We recognise the focus has been COVID-19 and we acknowledge the great public health efforts of the government and NSW community so far. However, while COVID has stopped many things, it hasn’t stopped cancer.

There have been many lessons from the pandemic – one lesson that we can’t afford to ignore is while health inequalities exist, it diminishes the health of us all.

Sarah Hosking, chief executive officer, Cancer Council NSW