Improving equity of access to high-quality cancer care
The Victorian Cancer Plan 2020–2024 focuses on achieving health equity across the cancer system:
People affected by cancer should not be disadvantaged by who they are, where they live, or what resources they have.
The VICS help health services and providers to:
- improve adoption of quality cancer care closer to home
- increase alignment with the Multidisciplinary Meeting Quality Framework
- address the needs of the older person in routine cancer care.
Cancer care closer to home
The VICS support health services across Victoria to:
- make appropriate use of telehealth models in clinical care and multidisciplinary meetings
- implement home-based cancer care and/or care-closer-to-home programs
- develop and implement service capability frameworks for cancer care
- establish appropriate and effective referral and repatriation pathways (with a focus on regional and outer metropolitan services).
- assess health services against the cancer clinical capability framework and adopt any local initiatives.
Care closer to home
Multidisciplinary meeting quality
Multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) are deliberate, regular meetings between a range of health professionals to facilitate best-practice management of all patients with cancer. The VICS supported establishment of MDMs across Victoria, which are now operated by health services. We continue to support those services in MDM quality improvement activities. For contact details of MDM coordinators in your area, or at health services to which you refer patients, see local ICS webpages.
In 2018, the VICS and partners developed an agreed set of standards, indicators and measures for all MDMs in Victoria, aligned with Australia’s National Safety and Quality Health Service standards – The Victorian cancer multidisciplinary team meeting quality framework.
In 2019–20, LMICS led a comprehensive audit of 85 MDMs’ alignment with this framework. Participating health services identified 86 improvement activities as a result of the audit. The project also generated 10 recommendations, relating to statewide implementation of improvement initiatives. See the Department of Health website for findings and recommendations. The VICS will support implementation of the report’s recommendations in 2024 and beyond.
Needs of the older person in cancer care
The Australian population is ageing, and the risk of being diagnosed with cancer increases with age. Nearly half of all Victorians diagnosed with cancer are over 70 years old. Older people can experience poorer responses to treatment and poorer outcomes due to:
- age-related vulnerabilities
- comorbidities
- complex polypharmacy issues
- limited age-adjusted evidence from clinical trials.
The VICS support health services to identify and address such barriers to care for older patients.
In 2020–2024, HRICS and SMICS have focussed on addressing the needs of the older person in routine cancer care by supporting health services to implement geriatric oncology models of care. They have engaged stakeholders across the state, including key personnel from Safer Care Victoria.
In September 2021, HRICS and SMICS hosted a workshop with subject matter experts and clinicians involved in service implementation. Evidence collected from these activities, reinforced by outcomes from the statewide scoping project led by SMICS in 2019, supported solution development. This included creating a toolkit to support improvements in care to older people affected by cancer.
