Advocacy on issues:
• Radiotherapy under-dosing incident at the Royal Adelaide Hospital
• Chemotherapy over-dosing at the Womens and Childrens Hospital
• Coordinated, holistic and multi-disciplinary team approach to cancer care, plus: Raise awareness of consumer interest in ‘integrated medicine’ with complementary therapies; and Need for services including support after treatment has ended, support for carers after the patient has passed away, legal/financial counselling (eg powers of attorney, wills, superannuation), sexual/sexuality issues, help for patients with a young family etc.
Ongoing representation on:
• SA Cancer Clinical Network (CCN) Steering committee and the following subcommittees/working groups:
Optimising Cancer Care subcommittee
Cancer Information subcommittee
Infrastructure subcommittee
Radiation Oncology subcommittee
Radiotherapy Performance Indicators working group,
Complementary Therapies working group (chaired by CVSA Exec)
• SA Quality and Safety Council in Healthcare Consumer Advisory Committee.
• Cancer Voices Australia (CVA) Board.
• Cancer Australia - National Consumer Advisory Committee.
• EdCAN - Cancer Nurses Education Project.
• CareSearch - Palliative Care National Advisory Group
Forums/Meetings/Workshops attended:
• Clinical Oncology Society of Australia - Consumer Forum (Nov 08, Sydney).
• Consumer Health Forum and Medicines Australia advocacy workshop for health consumer organisations (Nov 08, Canberra).
• National Institute of Complementary Medicine – Forum on information production, coordination, dissemination (Sep 08, Sydney).
• Workshop- Improving the availability, access and quality of cancer information for clinicians and consumers (July 08, Adelaide).
• CaNET National Cancer Network workshops.
Presentations:
Southern Fleurieu Cancer Network - Launch
Cancer Australia - CanNet Multi-disciplinary Care Forum
Cancer Council SA - Support Group Leaders Development Forum
Southern Fleurieu Cancer Network - Update
Documents:
Radiotherapy benchmarks for cancer treatments, from the consumers perspective. (to CCN, Apr 08)
Integrative oncology and Complementary therapies for cancer care in Australia and overseas - CVSA background paper (to CCN, Jun 08).
Cancer Advocacy Groups and Pharma Funding: CVSA discussion paper (to CVA, Jun 08).
RAH cancer patient’s Radiotherapy dosing errors – CVSA concerns (to Dr Tony Sherbon, July 08).
RAH radiotherapy incident – CVSA concerns (to Prof Delaney, Aug 08).