NURS 3046 Nursing Project

In the recent years, death rates resulting from cigarette smoking have risen so much. Today lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths in Australia.  We may blame smokers for their careless habit but it, the increase in deaths may be attributed to our failure to do enough to give advice, care and proper medication to the victims. When the smokers incur a lot of costs in meeting their medicines of cancerous infections, we tend to blame the government. Others blame the nurses and health care providers. Some blame the smokers but

Smoking is one of the main challenges to the health problems. Smokers risk themselves to cancer, mostly cancer of the lungs. In the year 2004-2005, a total of 14900 people in Australia passed away as a result of smoking and its attributable sicknesses. It is approximately, 40% of the deaths that are preventable on a daily basis by the society. Also, cancer is the primary cause of smoking-related diseases where statistics show that the death rates are, 57% for and 51% for women among people of all age (Cancer Council NSW, 2017).

Although the Australian is mostly government funded, a lot of out of pocket costs are associated with it. They include expenses attributed to diagnosis, treatment and also survival in the public system. In the country a lot of cancer care occurs mainly in the private sector, majorly privately funded or under health insurance covers such as Medicare. The out of pocket costs can be substantially higher. The aged suffer most because they have cancer and other chronic illnesses such as diabetes where it is estimated that they can spend up to more than 10% of household income on the out of pocket cost (McCaffrey, 2017)

The Australian government has the significant role to play in ensuring that people who are affected by smoking-related illnesses access to free and cheap medication. The Australian government must make efforts to provide cancer patients can access chemotherapy treatments of quality measures at their time of need. 

Governments are the only solution to relieve patients from extreme out of pocket medication costs. Though the government of Australia has some many medical insurances, a challenge exists on how they cover chemotherapy.

In the country, the original Medicare Coverage for cancer treatment does come with costs that you must pay which include coinsurance and other deductibles. For example, if you are enrolled in part A Medicare and part B, it enables you to sign up for a Medicare Supplement, (Medigap plan), that help in paying the Original Medicare’s out of pocket costs which are associated with your cancer treatment (Cross, 2017)

Once the government makes strides in providing government funded care, nurses have the more significant role to play in ensuring that the patients who have cancer get quality care in these hospitals. Nurse leaders should be at the forefront of quality care and help the nurses provide the best quality of attention to the cancer patients. The government funds the treatment of cancer patient, but the big question is, does it fully engage all stakeholders and the citizens in the decision making processes in policy making?

Patients come to the hospitals to get treatment and counseling. As per the increasing rates of deaths in the country associated with smoking-related infections, it is evident that the counseling part of the treatment process is not done correctly. This leads to an increase in the number of cancer patients and results in a lot of pressure in the government funds and services allocated to cancer treatment which may lead to inadequate free medication to the patients.

Nurses interact directly with the cancer patients in the hospitals. They understand better the challenges faced by patients in accessing the government funded cancer treatment. In my opinion, these nurses have the best solution to the way the government should provide health care to the patients. They can give counseling to smokers, rehabilitate them and give them the best treatment to reduce the pressure that mounts on the government resources allocated to cancer treatment.

References

Cross, J. (2017, October 31). Does Medicare Cover Cancer Treatment? Medicare.com, pp. 2-10.

McCaffrey, N. (2017). Cost of cancer to the patient. CANCER FORUM (pp. 8-10). Sydney: Clinical Oncology Society of Australia.

NSW, C. C. (2016, April). Health care in Australia. Retrieved from Cancer Council NSW: https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/cancer-information/when-you-are-first-diagnosed/cancer-care-and-your-rights/health-care-in-australia/