Nurses will co-ordinate services to support cancer patients and their families outside big cities
Labor has promised $15m to establish a network of nurse co-ordinators in rural and regional Australia to support more than 7000 cancer patients over the next four years.
The nurses will co-ordinate specialist services for rural patients who suffer from a lack of access and support to manage their conditions during often long and arduous treatments, usually away from home.
The co-ordinators will help patients navigate the system to provide information and connect them with resources they might otherwise miss. They will also help the patients' families with paperwork and management of the disease.
The co-ordinators will be based at 26 Commonwealth-funded regional cancer centres across the country. Five co-ordinators will be dedicated to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients at existing centres.
The initiative was included in the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook and the budget.
The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said on Wednesday all Australians with cancer were entitled to the best care available, regardless of where they lived or how much they earned.
"We are progressively bridging the gap in cancer outcomes between the city and the country," Rudd said.
"Today's initiative builds on our announcement earlier this week of improvements to cancer care at hospitals and health services in Sydney's west, south-east Queensland and south-west Western Australia."
