Analysis and assessing of radiotherapy service at the National Cancer Institute: productivity, infrastructure, and facilities

Abstract

Background: Cancer is a major public health problem in Thailand, and the incidence tended to be increased. Radiation therapy play an important and necessary role in treatment of both early and late-stage cancer patients. At present, in Thailand, there is no clear study and analysis of the radiation therapy work system in terms of services and infrastructures. Objective: This study aimed to analysis and evaluation of radiotherapy services of the National Cancer Institute both the statistics of cancer patients who received the service and infrastructure. Methods: The study was a retrospective data collection and description statistic. Data were collected from all radiotherapy clients and infrastructure for the past 3 years and collected from the population and hospital cancer registry reports for the past 10 years Results: The National Cancer Institute found a 60 percent decrease in new patients, but an 11 percent decrease in new cancer patients, females more than males, and more than 70 percent from Bangkok and nearby areas receiving chemotherapy. The most therapies found the most breast cancer. There were 4 specific and different systems of irradiation machine and TPS system and OIS system. Irradiated patients are reduced by 14.37%. Irradiation service is provided by technique 3 DCRT and the highest service value is 50.58%.  The irradiator of Cyber Knife had the highest maintenance cost equal to 307.95 percent of the service value. The number of radiotherapy personnel meets the specified criteria. where medical physicists have high turnover rate. Conclusion: The new cancer patients found a slight decrease and the most common breast cancer. There were 4 types of irradiators and TPS and OIS system. The four different specificity systems were the limitations of radiation techniques and number of personnel as well as expertise development. Most breast cancer patients were irradiated. Therefore, it was imperative to provide a suitable kit to check the irradiation positioning to increase efficiency. It had been found that irradiation with more advanced techniques increases. But there was still a high proportion of maintenance costs of the irradiator and tends to increase with age and deterioration. It was necessary to procure or replace the obsolete, low-power, long-lived system to increase the quality/number of patients/reduce the waiting time/increase the cost of radiation charges and different types of cancer in each area and the availability of radiotherapy systems, TPS, OIS, the potential of personnel, as well as the efficiency in reimbursement of radiation fees from various funds in order to continue to treat cancer patients with effective, quality and cost-effective radiation.