Linking cancer care

Victoria is committed to developing a ‘whole-of-system’ approach to cancer care coordination, which involves redesigning systems of care to foster and support relationship building between health services, health care providers and patients to ensure continuity of care for cancer patients.

Benefits to patients, health services and multidisciplinary teams Improving care coordination has numerous benefits, some of which are tangible and evident in the short term, and others that will only become evident over time.

Coordination of cancer care can:

• improve patient outcomes (when patients receive the appropriate care at the right time)
• improve use of recommended treatments, including increased referral to appropriate services and patient compliance (when system processes are known and used)
• improve communication between providers (when reliable and trusting relationships are built over time)
• streamline services, decrease duplication and reduce costs (when processes and communication are efficient and monitored or reviewed over time).

Purpose of the cancer care coordination policy

The purpose of this policy is to:

• identify strategic directions for cancer care coordination in Victoria
• promote the development and implementation of activities and initiatives that facilitate the coordination of cancer care at one or more levels of the health and community care system.

Statewide consultation and discussion with Integrated Cancer Services (ICS) has informed the development of this policy. The consultation included:

• the cancer care coordination workshop held in Melbourne in July 2005, organised by Cancer and Palliative Care in the Department of Human Services, Victoria
• the Patient Management Framework consultations held in each ICS in 2005
• meetings and forums within ICS to discuss the implementation of care coordination initiatives
• the Regional Integrated Cancer Services care coordination position paper