Regional Radiation Treatment Services

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Regional Development on critical regional services.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: Deanne Carmody, who is here today for the tabling of the petition, and her son, Scott Collins', story is heartbreaking. Scott was a happy 24 year old when, after going through headaches and forgetfulness, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. After surgery, Scott was sent to Adelaide where he had to stay alone for 12 weeks while receiving radiation treatment for 10 minutes each day, away from friends but, importantly, his mum, Deanne, and dad, Wayne.

Because of having his treatment in Adelaide, so far from home, Scott lost it all: his beloved job as a chef, his savings, and his mental health in decline. All Scott wanted was his own bed and the safety of having his mum and dad there during treatment. Similarly, mother and daughter, Leanne and Hailey Tincknell, were diagnosed with breast cancer within one week of each other. They were forced to live in a caravan park for the duration of their treatments in Warrnambool, Victoria. Hailey had to leave her young children for five weeks. During that time Leanne and Hailey were both unable to work.

My question to the minister is: with the Malinauskas government neglecting your own community in the Limestone Coast to establish a radiation therapy unit in the region, what do you say to these individuals and families who have had their lives upturned because of a lack of critical service in the state's second largest city?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for his question. I think every member of the Limestone Coast community is keen to have services as close to home as possible. I think everyone can relate to the incredible difficulty experienced by people such as Scott and his mother, Deanne, and others.

I recently had a conversation that I think also illustrates the complexity of some of the issues that we are talking about. I was at an event last week and an older man approached me and said that he had had prostate cancer. He had had radiation therapy and he outlined to me the difficulties of having to travel to Adelaide, which I think we are all very familiar with.

I explained to him that the issues include, for example, the need to have an intensive care unit close by because many people who have radiation therapy experience severe complications. This was the advice that I had been provided. His face changed and he said, 'Yes, I had those complications and I ended up in ICU. I understand. We really need to have those services.'

Mount Gambier doesn't have an intensive care unit. I understand that there are other facilities that cannot currently be provided in Mount Gambier. The other facilities cannot be provided at this stage. An appropriate feasibility study, which is going to be now undertaken, will be able to inform all those things, but I don't think anyone who has experienced cancer in the Limestone Coast wants to be going into a service that will not be safe for them, even if it is in their local community. I think—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: —that we need to defer—

The Hon. H.M. Girolamo interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Ms Girolamo!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I think we need to defer to the clinicians, to the medical professionals, who can say whether a service can be delivered safely or not.

The Hon. L.A. Henderson: That's a convenient handball. Are you not in government now? Perhaps, you can help to rectify some of these issues.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: To suggest, as someone opposite is interjecting, that that is to handball, I think those who are professionally qualified in medicine, particularly in regard to oncology and other cancer services, are the ones most appropriately able to answer that sort of a question. We want to have safe services. Those services cannot currently be delivered safely in Mount Gambier.

The feasibility study will enable an accurate, complete and full explanation of how we could move towards those things, and the services that will be provided in the meantime will provide some of that foundation so that, in the future, if we can provide radiation therapy services, they will be able to be provided in a way that is safe.