CANCER lobby groups say cancer patients living in remote parts of Australia will be unfairly treated in the Rudd Government's health reforms as travel assistance will remain a state responsibility.
The Cancer Council and Clinical Oncological Society of Australia have welcomed, in principle, a number of the government's reforms to the hospital system.
One of those reforms includes a plan to set national care standards by ensuring clinical practice guidelines are developed and applied locally as part of best practice.
But the Cancer Council says the government will still need to address under-utilisation of critical services such as radiotherapy, which require infrastructure and workforce investment.
Council chief Ian Olver says the decision to leave the fragmented remote patient travel assistance schemes as a state responsibility would likely mean that many benefits would still bypass cancer patients in rural and remote areas.
