24 / 64
Quality Practice
24
Inside News
The Faculty of Radiation Oncology
recognises the important role that
practice standards play in supporting
the delivery of safe and high-quality
radiation oncology services. We are
duly proud of the Radiation Oncology
Practice Standards (the Standards) which
were published in 2011 as a Tripartite
initiative.
It has always been our goal that
the Standards be comprehensively
implemented in all centres in Australia
and New Zealand and the Faculty has
been advocating for governments
to mandate the Standards for many
years. This advocacy effort has proved
successful in Queensland where the
state government has mandated
compliance with the Standards; however,
it still falls short of our goal of having the
Standards mandated in Australia and
New Zealand at the federal level, or at
least in every state and territory.
To progress this goal in 2015, the
Tripartite Committee formed a
working group to proactively progress
implementation of the Standards. The
Radiation Oncology Standards Working
Group is focused on developing a
standards implementation process that
supports quality improvement, is aligned
with the National Safety and Quality
Health Service (NSQHS) Standards as
much as possible and does not unduly
overburden facilities.
As a first step, the working group
has developed a self-assessment
tool to assist centres to reflect on
their own quality management
systems and assess their current
status against the Standards. It is
hoped that this will trigger a greater
awareness of the Standards. The
process of implementing standards
and demonstrating compliance can
be resource intensive but the process
is very beneficial as it illuminates both
strengths and weaknesses in the service
and ultimately provides reassurance to
both practitioners and patients of the
safety and high quality of the services
provided.
Following on from the self-assessment
tool, the working group is exploring
an opportunity to partner with the
Australian Council on Healthcare
Standards (ACHS) to integrate
accreditation of radiation oncology
centres against the Standards at the
same time that the hospital/centre is
being accredited against the NSQHS
Standards. Currently 73 of the 74 centres
in Australia are accredited against the
NSQHS by ACHS. This is an attractive
model that would avoid duplication
and streamline the accreditation
process, rolling it into the hospital/
centre’s current accreditation activities.
This program will first be available to
Australian centres on a voluntary basis
with the possibility of expanding to New
Zealand centres in the future.
It is hoped that presenting a successfully
functioning program, which is
profession-led, will make mandating the
standards a much easier decision, ideally
for the federal government or at least
for each state and territory government.
News on the progress of this working
group will follow in future issues of
Inside News
.
Dr Brigid Hickey
Chair, Radiation Oncology Tripartite
Committee
Chair, Radiation Oncology Practice
Standards Working Group
Radiation Oncology Practice
Standards Update
RADIATION
ONCOLOGY
PRACTICE
STANDARDS
2011
ATRIPARTITE INITIATIVE