:: Visions For The Future - Our Plans

For the first time a population of approximately 500,000 people spread across 700km of coastline will have easy access to a radiotherapy service. The NCCI has opened two new facilities in early 2007 at Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour. A third centre at Lismore is now under construction and expected to open in early 2010.

Each centre will incorporate Radiation and Medical Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care. Breast screening services will also be sharing the building at Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie. All three centres are being built with two bunkers however only one linear accelerator will initially be installed at each site.

Significant planning effort is ensured an "integrated” approach with all centres linked via common databases and video conferencing to help support an integrated service.

Our Director Tom Shakespeare's vision is that NCCI will have a vibrant research program, and that radiation oncology research will be conducted with a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach. He sees NCCI as having an initial research focus on health services research, collaborative clinical research and physics research, and will be encouraging all staff to pursue university appointments.

Tom also has an interest in the education of staff and the public, and sees the NCCI playing a pivotal role in these efforts. He sees NCCI being a premiere training facility for registrars, and will use his experience in setting up the highly successful RANZCR-accredited training program in Singapore to achieve this goal.

Toms leadership role within the North Coast Area Health Service is to commence and develop the Area Cancer Stream under the North Coast Cancer Institute flag. The clinical stream will encompass all clinical care of cancer, palliative care, malignant haematology and BreastScreen services from Port Macquarie to Tweed Heads. The stream will be responsible for operating integrated cancer care centres at Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Lismore, as well as providing Area-wide quality, research and education initiatives. In the 12 months since its inception, the new clinical stream obtained over $2,000,000 in grants for equipment, research and education.