Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19

Web report

Last updated: 07 Oct 2020

Topic: Radiotherapy

Media release

AIHW

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2020) Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 08 December 2023.

APA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2020). Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19. Retrieved from https://pp.aihw.gov.au/reports/radiotherapy/radiotherapy-in-australia-2018-19

MLA

Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 07 October 2020, https://pp.aihw.gov.au/reports/radiotherapy/radiotherapy-in-australia-2018-19

Vancouver

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19 [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020 [cited 2023 Dec. 8]. Available from: https://pp.aihw.gov.au/reports/radiotherapy/radiotherapy-in-australia-2018-19

Harvard

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2020, Radiotherapy in Australia 2018–19, viewed 8 December 2023, https://pp.aihw.gov.au/reports/radiotherapy/radiotherapy-in-australia-2018-19

Latest edition

In 2018–19, 74,200 courses of radiotherapy were delivered in Australia. Half of all radiotherapy patients started treatment within 10 days of being assessed as ready for care, and 90% within 27 days. For those who needed emergency treatment (1.5% of courses), 96% began treatment within the recommended timeframe—on the same or the next day.

Cat. no: HSE 248

Findings from this report:

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.