@arpie
The thing is that "care closer to home" has not changed in 25 years in the remote regions of Western Australia.
Twenty five years ago my husband had to travel 2,300kms for cancer surgery and then twenty years later I was undertaking the same travel. Nothing changed. All the promises, all the proposals about cancer care centres to be built in the regions have amounted to nothing.
To illustrate the difference in access to cancer care, scans, biopsies, surgery and follow up I like to relate the story of my cousin and myself.
My cousin's travel day for her breast cancer care consists of a half hour drive to her clinic, has her appointment, scan or whatever and then has a half hour drive home to her house, her kitchen, her bathroom, her toilet and her coffee mug.
My travel day starts with us being up at 04:30am, then consists of a three hour drive to the airport, leaving home at around 6:00 am, always allowing at least an extra hour in case of hold ups by roadworks or tyre blow outs.
The road has heavy three trailer roadtrains, has cattle wandering across and in the Wet Season the creek crossings and floodways are running.
Check in at the airport and wait around for a few hours. If we are lucky the arriving plane is on time. If we are even more lucky our departing plane leaves on time for a three hour flight to Perth. Then an hour to our accomodation. It is not my house, not my kitchen, not my bathroom, not my toilet but there is my coffee mug because it goes everywhere with me.
If I am fortunate, I have clearance by the hospital clinic to go home and thus repeat the outwards journey.
My cousin lives in the city, I am remote. We are both in our seventies. I am aware that I choose to live where I live, but then so does my cousin. The ease to our respective medical care is determined by our postcode.
