Regional Cancer Centre's Service Plan - Grampians Region
This project will focus on building a strong patient-centered approach to all aspects of service delivery and care to form a service plan.
The Department of Health (DH) funded Grampians Health in 2021 to develop a Regional Cancer Service Plan and a five-year implementation plan for the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre (BRICC). Seven Regional Cancer Centers across Victoria have been funded to undertake this project for their respective catchments.
The Department required that the project align with the Victorian Cancer Plan 2020-2024 by the end of September 2022.
The purpose of the Regional Cancer Service Plan is to strengthen regional cancer centers, taking a leading role in improving health service delivery, system performance, and reducing variations in care to meet people’s health needs, regardless of who they are or where they live in the region. The focus will be on building a strong patient-centered approach to all aspects of service delivery and care to form a service plan.
A draft service plan was completed in 2022 and submitted to the Department of Health for their review and feedback. However, feedback from DH was not received until January 2024 due to personnel changes and restructuring within the Department of Health.
In discussions between BRICC and Grampians Integrated Cancer Service (GICS), it was agreed to update the draft plan considering the feedback received from DH and the recently released Victorian Cancer Plan 2024-2028, with funding support from GICS to complete the project. Philip Sabien, Improvement & Innovation Advisor at Grampians Health, pictured below, has been appointed to undertake this work.
The Department have stated that the Regional Cancer Service Plan must include the following components:
- Referral pathways, to access care across the Optimal Care Pathways for each cancer stream and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer.
- Identify and engage underserved populations for the geographic area serviced by the Regional Cancer Centre
- Cover the years to June 2028 to align with the Victorian Cancer Plan 2024-2028 renewed thereafter to align with future four-year Victorian Cancer Plans.
- Mechanisms to ensure completeness of information transfer when a patient is referred to and/or from another health provider
- Optimal cancer care is delivered across the Optimal Care Pathway, particularly for supportive care with shared care between primary and acute sectors for patients.
- Effective use of multidisciplinary team meetings for clinical decision making through increased use of QOOL-VIC to enable better access to specialist care
- An evaluation plan to monitor delivery and improvement of Regional Cancer Centre services.
The Regional Cancer Service Plan will be strengthened by strong internal and external stakeholder engagement and an Implementation Plan, monitored against the Victorian Cancer Plan Monitoring & Evaluation Framework (2023). The Service Plan will align with the Grampians Health Clinical Service Plan 2022 and be completed by December 2025.
Several project challenges have been identified early on and will remain top of mind as we progress through the different phases of the project. These challenges include aligning with internal and external stakeholders’ expectations, incorporating service models that meet the future needs of the region, and obtaining timely endorsement of the Service Plan from the Department of Health.
We are establishing a Regional Project Advisory Group to provide leadership and guidance in the development of the Service Plan, as well as a Project Team to address any roadblocks, review data sets, and provide guidance on future models of care.
Project Update – March 2025
