Cobar will soon have a visiting oncology service which will save a number of local cancer patients having to travel for treatment.
Oncologist Dr Florian Honeyball and his associates Dr Joe Gormally and nurse Kim Turley, were in Cobar yesterday for a meeting with Cobar Hospital and Cobar Community Health staff to discuss how the new service will work when it is introduced later this year.
Dr Honeyball said when he started working in Dubbo in May this year it was with the view to also bring oncology services to the western NSW district.
“The idea behind providing services beyond Dubbo is to ensure equity of access for patients to oncology.
“I see myself as a community oncologist and I want to be working in the community,” Dr Honeyball said.
He said the Cobar oncology service will be based at Cobar Community Health and provide long term, follow-up care to patients in Cobar and the surrounding district.
Dr Honeyball and his staff will initially visit once every two months with the view to increasing visits to monthly.
He said while not all cancer patients will be able to use the service, it will reduce the number of cancer sufferers who have to travel out of town for treatment.
Dr Honeyball praised the Cobar health services who he said “have been great to work with and have helped to get the service up and running quickly”.
He said he hoped the service would be able to commence in September.
