Strategic Decision Making in Health: Breast Cancer in Australia

This report delves into the strategic decision-making processes related to breast cancer management within the Australian healthcare system. It begins by outlining the prevalence of breast cancer in Australia, highlighting its significance as a major health concern, particularly among women. The report then provides an overview of the Australian health management system, discussing its structure and the roles of various stakeholders, including the government. It examines the challenges associated with poor breast cancer management, such as political influences, structural deficiencies, human resource limitations, and symbolic factors like cultural awareness. The report also explores the responsibilities of the government in addressing these challenges, including funding, awareness campaigns, and data collection. Finally, it offers recommendations for improvement, focusing on areas like increased funding, enhanced screening programs, and improved access to healthcare services, especially for rural and indigenous populations. The report underscores the need for a comprehensive approach to improve breast cancer outcomes in Australia.

Running Head: Strategic Decision Making in Health
Strategic Decision Making in Health

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Health Management…………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
Prevalence of Breast Cancer in Australia………………………………………………………...4
Discussion of Australian Health Management…………………………………………………...5
Challenges of the Poor health management in Australia………………………………………....7
Responsibilities of Government………………………………………………………………….9
Recommendations for Improvement……………………………………………………………..9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
The purpose of the health management system is the management of diseases through effective
use of various medical services in hospitals and health care centers. This study identifies the
problem of ‘Poor Management of Breast Cancer in Australia’ and analyzes the situation in terms
of four different factors: structural, human resource, political and symbolic.
Breast cancer is highly predominant in females in Australia. Out of 19535, new Breast cancer
cases detected in 2019, 19375 were females and 164 males. In Australia, breast cancer is the
second most prominently detected cancer after prostate cancer and fourth main reason for deaths.
The country has a mixed ethnic population. The patients residing at rural areas have 7% greater
mortality rate because of breast cancer than those living in urban locations. Moreover the
indigenous rural women living with cancer face multiple challenges.
Most of the healthcare services are funded by the government. The health management system of
Australia is complex in structure and controlled by the state governments, territory governments
as its stakeholders (Gonzalez-Chica et al., 2016).
Overview of health management
In Australia Breast Cancer is key cause for mortality and morbidity (Lobry de Bruyn &
Andrews, 2016). Government of Australia has identified Cancer care as its National Health
Priority Areas in addition to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and asthma (Homaira et al., 2019).
To control the breast cancer issues among Australians the government need to implement an
appropriate management system and increase public awareness about the disease. Government
should provide sufficient specialists, support services and allied health services to the cancer
patients in regional and rural areas equivalent to the urban populations. The healthcare
professionals need to be trained in effective communication strategies and culturally sensitive
manner to improve the trust, interpersonal relationship, compliance and the patient outcomes.
Prevalence of Breast Cancer in Australia
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Breast cancer is a disease of uncontrolled multiplication of malignant mammary cells. Breast
cancer is not a disease to be controlled by prevention. The focus should be on early screening
and detection.
The government has launched the national programs for breast cancer screening named “Breast
Screen Australia” for detecting breast cancer at early stage in Australians. The best way for early
detection of breast cancer in its early stage is through mammography screening and it should be
done every two years. Breast cancer detected at the early stages can be treated and the chances of
recovery of the patient are very high. As age is a key factor in occurrence of breast cancer, the
government has started the joint venture ‘Commonwealth-State Breast Screen Australia’
program to target the women aged 50-69 years (Phillips et al., 2016). In Australia, the mortality
rate of breast cancer affected patients is 19.1 per 100000 women among those aged 40-44 years,
63.9 per 100000 among those aged 50-69 years and 115.7 per 100000 among those aged 75-79
year (Clement, 2017).
Considerable amount of data is available about the breast cancer screening but treatment and
management of breast cancer is poor in Australia. Free diagnosis and screening is done by the
National Screening Programs like ‘BreastScreen’ Australia. After this, treatment and care is
provided by the public and private sector hospitals (Ho- Huynh et al., 2019).
Discussion of Australia Health management
Some problems faced by the Australian population in health management of breast cancer are-
1. Political
Though the Australian government takes the necessary steps to raise the awareness of breast
cancer among Australian people, the diverse cultural groups in Australia residing in distant rural
areas lack effective awareness about breast cancer. The ‘Breast-Screen Australia’ program is an
example of such an awareness program which helps in early detection and screening. The key
stakeholder Organizations working for Breast Cancer in Australia are: Breast Cancer Network
Australia, McGrath Foundation, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Australia etc
(Breast Cancer network Australia [BCNA], 2019). These organizations ensure that the patients
receive, care, support, treatment and information at right time. National Breast Cancer
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Foundation (NBCF) is main body raising and providing funds for the breast cancer related
research. It aims to reduce deaths occurring from breast cancer through faster diagnosis,
treatment and prevention. NBCF is national advocacy body in this regard and educates the
women and families about breast cancer. The Cancer Australia government funded Organization
which offers evidence based treatment and care for cancer.. McGrath Foundation also educates
the women (NBCF, 2019).
Corruption in the government structure is another reason for the poor management of breast
cancer which is mainly driven by shortage of funding by the government (Kendrick et al., 2019).
There is a lack of effective health policy in the Australia and the subsiding policies are not
sufficient to tackle the poor condition. There are layers of complexity in the lives of Australians
leading to financial difficulties. The strategies for cancer treatment need to support affordable
access to care facilities for financially constrained populations.
The data collection and its linkage associated with breast cancer is inconsistent and inaccurate
most of the times (Tapia, Garvey, Entee, Rickard & Brenan, 2017). All the incidents of cancer
for indigenous people are not captured accurately as the reporting of ethnicity is optional and self
reported. It is never made compulsory or consistent to report or collect this information.
According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there is under-screening of indigenous
women in comparison to the other Australian women and the breast cancer is diagnosed at
advanced stages.
There is shortage of cancer specialist doctors in remote rural and regional locations. Moreover,
majority of patients in these areas have poor economic condition. They can’t afford cancer
treatment and also are unaware of majority of government policies in this regard.
Structural
Technology in medical science has increased the quality of medical services. But the Australian
population is facing a serious problem in funding in technology. Increased urbanization in
Australia has increased the cases of Breast cancer in its population. Indigenous people of
Australia have a lower life expectancy than the non- indigenous populations in Australia.
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Australia is facing inequality in medical treatment; there is a difference in the medical service
provided to the affluent people than the non-affluent people. Being a vast country Australia is
facing differences in the medical service provided in its various regions.
Human resource
The main problem Australia is facing in tackling breast cancer is its human resources (Holley et
al., 2016). Australia has a wide range of public and private hospitals for the treatment of breast
cancer patients but the main problem is the shortage of efficient workforce. The workforce
operating in these healthcare facilities does not have sufficient knowledge about the diagnosis
and treatment of breast cancer. Australia is also facing a shortage of specialist doctors in its
healthcare facilities. There is an acute shortage of specialist doctors in rural areas in Australia.
Poor salary structure and poor working conditions in the public hospitals make the doctors to
shift in the private hospitals. As the treatment cost in the private hospitals is very high than the
public hospitals, people prefer public hospitals. The treatment quality in public hospitals is very
low than private hospitals. The Australian government should initiate programs to provide
training and knowledge to its massive workforce about medical services and breast cancer
(Holley et al., 2016).
Symbolic
Australia is facing a symbolic deficiency in its healthcare management. Australia has a
population of diverse cultural groups and in many indigenous populations there is less awareness
about medical health. Breast cancer is responsible for 25% of different types of cancers among
Aboriginal women (Tapia et al., 2017). One woman in every 11 women suffers from breast
cancer (Tapia et al., 2017). They have high mortality rates due to breast cancer in comparison to
non indigenous women. The condition may be attributed to factors like socioeconomic
disadvantage, geographic remoteness, younger age at the time of diagnosis, lower cancer
screening participation, advanced stage of cancer when detected and co-morbidities. Many
indigenous people in the Australian population do not trust the modern medical treatment. Due to
poverty and their prolonged traditional beliefs they do not prefer to seek medical help. Most of
them cannot afford medical treatment. The Australian government and many Organisations are
working in this regard to increase awareness among indigenous people about cancer awareness
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and providing them financial assistance so that they can afford medical treatments from health
facilities. Lack of government’s initiative to reach out to these tribes is the main reason for their
social downfall. There is a need of effective implementation of programs in this direction
(Hattingh et al., 2017).
Challenges of the Poor health management in Australia
Being the sixth largest country in the world Australia is facing various challenges in its health
management. Challenges related to demographics and the increasing demand for health services
are a primary contribution to poor management in breast cancer. Being the sixth largest country,
Australia is facing poor management of chronic diseases like breast cancer. Changes in
demographics make it necessary to maintain a correct health database for the population.
Australia has a population of around 25 million and it is a tough job to maintain such a large
database of health (Phillips et al., 2016). As the world is advancing in the medical science,
Australia needs to implement new medical technologies to address the growing demand for
cancer awareness in its population. Australian government along with state and territory
governments has implemented a national approach for coordinated health care under the National
Health Reform Agreement to provide better community and preventive care for breast cancer.
Maintenance and access to health data of patients can be effective in the future treatments of the
patients. Doctors can easily access to this health data and can treat accordingly. Advancement of
medical science has led to the growth of Genome tests in the Australian population. Through
genome testing, cancer can be diagnosed early and the recovery of the treatment will be
high(Ryan et al., 2018).
The initiatives like Medicare and PBS have helped the economically weaker sections in Cancer
treatment (Phillips et al., 2016). The Medicare healthcare scheme provides cancer treatment at
subsidized rate. The PBS scheme helps reduce the cost of expensive medicines and makes them
cheaper. People enrolled in the Medicare scheme get benefitted by this scheme, only a small
amount is paid by the patients and the rest is paid by the governments (McPherson, Cochrane &
Zhu2016).
Government Responsibilities
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The Australian government should create a separate team of management to look after the
Medicare benefits scheme. The government should increase awareness among the people about
the benefits of this health care scheme and should look after that the benefits reach every people
in Australia. Corruption in this medical scheme must be checked by the Australian government.
The government should take preventive measures in the regulation of different public and private
health schemes for cancer. The Australian government should increase the awareness of
preventive cancer screening among its populations (Galletly et al., 2016). The funding should be
increased by the government to better screening and treatment of cancer patients. ‘BreastScreen
Australia’ is one of the largest breast cancer screening campaigns by the Australian government
with collaboration with the territory and state governments (Smyth et al., 2016). The Australian
government maintains and collects health information and data for better treatment of patients.
The government of Australia has created a campaign under the national immunization program
to immunize the population from various diseases including cancer. In 2016-2017 Australia
spent nearly 181 billion dollars for cancer treatment and awareness programs and in this 41%
was granted by the Government of Australia, 27% by the state and territory governments, 17%
by people and 9% by private health insurance providers (Ellett et al., 2018).
Responsibilities of state, territory and local governments
State and territory governments monitor administration and management of cancer treatment and
care at all public hospitals. One of the main responsibilities of state and territory governments is
organizing preventive services such as immunization programs and screening of breast cancer.
They can also regulate the services like emergency and ambulance (Butler-Henderson et al.,
2018).
Recommendations for improvement
Being one of the largest countries in the world it is tough to implement fair and efficient cancer
management by the Australian government. Changes in demographics lead to different medical
needs of the population.
The medical services in public hospitals are totally funded by the Australian government. One of
the problems faced by the government is corruption in the structure. The government should
implement special teams to check the corruption and ensure the fund being reached properly to
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the hospitals. Being a mixed ethnic culture there is an inequality of medical services provided to
different sections of the population. The government should take initiatives to check this
inequality of cancer services. There is need to raise the awareness about health problems among
its population. With proper awareness and knowledge, it will be easier for Australians to tackle
major diseases such as breast cancer. The health management system of Australia has a complex
structure and controlled by the national government, the state government and the territory
government as its stakeholders. As a reason, there is a complexity in its operation and there are
issues in the decision making. All the stakeholders must ensure the smooth implementation of
decisions and reduce the complexity in the management (Bills et al., 2017).
The government should increase spending in the health sectors and should implement effective
policies to tackle breast cancer. The government should encourage the doctors in the public
healthcare facilities with incentives, bonus etc to work for efficiently and encourage them to treat
patients in the public hospitals. The government should set up a management structure to
effectively manage the barriers. The government should implement special policies and medical
cover for cancer treatment of the people (Smith et al., 2017).
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Conclusion
All the medical spending in Australia is done by the government. All the medicals services are
funded by the Australian national and territorial government. In recent days Australia is facing
different problems in its health management such as political problems, structural problems,
human resource and symbolic problems. Corruption in the political sections and in the structure
has lead to the poor condition of health management. Australia has differences in medical
services provided in different regions. Low income in some regions has led the people to stay
away from medical treatment. Lack of awareness among the people of Australia is a serious
challenge for the Australian government. (Neil, Murphy& Chapman, 2018). To overcome the
different problem the Australian government should increase health spending, check corruption
in its management. The government should provide special medical training to its population to
increase the efficiency and productivity of its medical staff. The government should restructure
its management to increase its efficiency and decrease corruption. The government should create
a management body to look after the health services. The government should organize different
campaigns to increase health awareness among its people and with these entire steps Australian
healthcare will reach a new height.
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