Radiotherapy activity and collection participation

Changes in data reported over the 6 years of the collection have been influenced by:

  • improved participation by service providers (particularly by the private sector)
  • improvement in the number of reported courses that include waiting times data (particularly in the private sector).

Facility participation in the collection

93 facilities were providing megavoltage external beam radiotherapy in Australia during 2018-19,
all participated in this collection

Table 1 shows how participation has improved over the 6 years of collection. Interactive 3 displays radiotherapy sites by state and sector and participation status for all 6 years of the collection. A number of new facilities (or sites) have opened in most jurisdictions since the beginning of the collection.

Table 1: Participating facilities

 

2013–14

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

Number of public radiotherapy sites participating in the data collection

37(a)

40(a)

44

44

47

47

Number of private radiotherapy sites participating in the data collection

16(a)

26

33

35

42

46

Per cent of radiotherapy sites in Australia participating in the collection

73%

89%

100%(b)

100%

97%

100%

(a)    In 2013–14, 36 public and 5 private facilities provided waiting times data. In 2014–15, 37 public facilities provided waiting times data.

(b)    Effectively 100%—one public site that began operating 11 days before the end of 2015–16 did not provide data.

Waiting times data availability

Not all providers were able to supply waiting times data for every course of radiotherapy reported. The provision of waiting times data has improved over time (Table 2).

Table 2: Radiotherapy courses with waiting times data

 

2013–14

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

Total number of courses reported

47,657

56,376

60,580

63,531

67,773

74,199

Per cent of courses reported that included waiting times data

81%

93%

97%

100%(a)

99%

99%

(a)    Rounded to 100%, 0.4% of records (250 records) were missing waiting times data.

 

Data visualisation Interactive 3: Radiotherapy provider sites contributing data. Interactive figure 1 presents the sites for radiotherapy providers in Australia, contributing to the Radiotherapy waiting times national collection from 2013–14 to 2018–19 by sector.