BECC BIRD, PRESENTER: It was announced by the Federal Government that $46.5 million will be spent over five years to expand the McGrath Foundation Cancer Care Nurse Service to now include prostate cancer nurse roles. This is a service currently carried out by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, which allowed the Limestone Coast to secure a specialist nurse back in 2020. It raises a lot of questions about the number of nurses that will be employed, the job security for current nurses, and what specialised training the prostate cancer nurses under the McGrath Foundation will receive. Tony Duddy is the Chair of the Limestone Coast Prostate Cancer Support Group. He spoke to us at length on some of his concerns when this was first announced. Here’s a bit of what he had to say about the local service.
TONY DUDDY, CHAIR, LIMESTONE COAST PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP: The demand for the nurse is very high. She’s had a 40 per cent increase in referrals this year alone. This is the concern with the McGrath Foundation, and I want to be clear that the McGrath Foundation does a fantastic job. They’ve done great work in getting donations for breast cancer nurses, but the prostate cancer nurses is about prostate cancer and treatment and ongoing support after treatment. This girl, and this lady, I don’t know how she does it. She is able to talk to blokes and help them with their issues. The model, going from what the PCFA does with their support networks and networking, they meet regularly with the nurses. They have got a Director of Nursing. They train the nurses, and they are specific for prostate cancer. The concern with the McGrath Foundation, I’d love them to come in and correct me on this, is that our specialist nurses will be generalised cancer care nurses. And when I heard Glenn McGrath make the announcement, the McGrath Foundation is now funding other cancer care nurses, I thought this is fantastic. And I speak to our local prostate cancer nurse regularly, and I talked to her about it. What do you think about this? She said, ‘Tony, do you want a breast cancer nurse talking to you about your prostate?’ And that hit home. No, I mean, they need specific training.
BIRD: That is Tony Duddy speaking to us previously. He is the Chair of the Limestone Coast Prostate Cancer Support Group. I should say as well, we have previously reached out to hear from the McGrath Foundation on this. We were directed to the Federal Government. The PCFA have put out statements on this as well, saying they will pursue every available avenue to protect their nursing services, including parliamentary scrutiny and examination of our contractual and legal rights. Well, to get a bit more answers from the Federal Government this morning, the Special Envoy for Men’s Health, Dan Repacholi, told the ABC that the transition would be planned to ensure patients continue receiving care. Dan Repacholi joins us this morning. Thank you very much for your time today.
DAN REPACHOLI MP, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR MEN’S HEALTH: Good morning, Becc, and good morning, listeners. It’s a pleasure to be here.
BIRD: So, firstly, can you explain why this decision has been made?
REPACHOLI: So, let’s be very clear here. Prostate cancer nursing is not being defunded at all. The current four-year contract with PCFA runs from 2023 to 2027. When that contract finishes, the Australian Government will continue to fund prostate cancer nurses, but they will just be through the McGrath Foundation. So it is pretty much a change of name on their shirt at the end of the day. And Tony, I was just listening to Tony then, and Tony has every right to be concerned about whether they will get the same service, whether blokes will be able to have the same amount of coverage, whether the nurses will be the same around the area. The nurses will stay the same. There is not a single doubt in the world on this. There are no changes to the service. This is a change to the provider, and this brings it in line with lung cancer, melanoma cancer and breast cancer being supplied by the McGrath Foundation. So those prostate cancer nurses will continue to be prostate cancer nurses. They just will be with a different provider as such.
BIRD: Can you confirm the number of nurses that will be provided through this funding transition? The Health Minister’s press release says this funding will support 60.5 full-time equivalent prostate cancer nurse positions in health and hospital services around Australia. But PCFA’s fundraising and corporate sponsors provide an extra 24 full-time nurse positions beyond the 60. So, will there be a loss of 24 nurses?
REPACHOLI: So there will be 60.5 full-time equivalent positions, and we will be funding that the same as what we have funded with PCFA. So that will stay the same. But PCFA will continue to do, and they are not being completely removed from prostate cancer care. They’ll continue to provide specialist support for men living with and beyond prostate cancer, including through its survivorship work, which they continue to receive government grants for as well.
BIRD: Will this move impact, I suppose, essentially the cut that the PCFA is able to sort of put out to the community and talk about the work they do in being able to fundraise for prostate cancer nurses?
REPACHOLI: Well, that’s up to the PCFA how they go about their fundraising and what they do. They have provided a very good service to men around the country. Unfortunately, we have nearly 4,000 deaths each year from prostate cancer. Around 29,000 blokes are diagnosed with this each year. So they have done a great job over the period of time. But we are changing the model of care that we want for this, which is putting those together with lung, with melanoma and with breast, but being looked after on their own through the McGrath Foundation.
BIRD: Mr Repacholi, another issue that Tony Duddy was raising with us is about the training. So, will the McGrath care model provide specialised training for nurses in these prostate care cases?
REPACHOLI: So, the McGrath Foundation do a hell of a lot of training in all of their nurses, and that will continue on in the role as well. What that model exactly looks like, I don’t 100 per cent know right now what that model exactly looks like. But that will be worked upon with the conversations that are happening with getting the nurses to transfer over to the McGrath Foundation as well. And that will all be happening before, obviously, the end of the financial year in 2027.
BIRD: What’s the importance of getting this change right for cancer patients now and into the future?
REPACHOLI: The biggest thing is making sure that these blokes are looked after, that we continue to make sure we look after them when they’re in a time of need, to be perfectly honest. When you hear those words, ‘You’ve got cancer’, like I haven’t heard them yet, and I hope to never hear them. And I hope that my family members don’t hear that as well. Unfortunately, my father heard that he had an enlarged prostate, and every different thought went through his head on this when it happened. So we need to be there, ready for when that happens, and that is the whole idea, to make sure that these conversations can be had, that they can be impactful, and that they really can get the care that they need through this process of their life.
BIRD: Yeah, will the changes still meet demand? The local prostate cancer support group, they’ve managed to crowdfund an extra day each week for the prostate cancer nurse locally because she’s under such demand. Is that sort of arrangement, you know, being made locally, still going to be able to operate?
REPACHOLI: And these will be things we’ll be able to discuss along the way, and all different groups. So, like for instance, in the Hunter, in the Newcastle area, there is a group there that fund two nurses to be there through philanthropic donations. That’s how they do it, and they have two nurses up there that are doing that great, crucial work because there are around 29,000 blokes that this happens to, unfortunately, every year. So we always need to see all these different little organisations out there doing what they do to make sure they’re caring about blokes. It’s not just blokes here. It’s caring about the families as well, and what the families are going through, because it’s not just one person that this affects. This affects a hell of a lot of people in their lives as well.
BIRD: Yeah, will the McGrath Foundation pick up that ongoing, full approach to, you know, caring for family, those supporting someone going through a cancer journey as well?
REPACHOLI: Of course they will. Look what the McGrath Foundation do. Like, if people don’t know the Pink Test in Sydney, then they’re living under a rock. The McGrath Foundation do such fantastic work in this space, and for them to branch out into all cancers and other areas of cancer like that is a good step forward for them. It is a good step forward for people going through an exceptionally tough time in their life when they hear those words, ‘You’ve got cancer.’
BIRD: Now, something you’ve been vocal on previously, but what would you say to men listening today?
REPACHOLI: So, to blokes listening today, go out, have a conversation with your GP, get a blood test. If we can get just 10 per cent more Aussie blokes out there going and getting a blood test every 12 months and checking on themselves, we are literally going to save thousands of lives. We should be encouraging men to seek help, not frightening them away.
BIRD: Dan, thank you very much for your time. That is Special Envoy for Men’s Health, Dan Repacholi.