Clinical audit of a new radiation oncology department in the first 20 months of establishment.

This audit was carried out to examine the workload statistics of the Radiation Oncology Department at Liverpool Hospital in its first 20 months of operation, and their implications for the delivery of radiation oncology services in the Southwestern Sydney Area Health Service (SWSAHS). Data on patient demographics, primary diagnosis and radiotherapy treatment details from April 1995 to December 1996 were analysed. In this time period, 1329 new patients were seen; 90.6% of them lived in the local area health service and approximately 30% came from a non-English-speaking background. The most common primary tumour sites were breast (25%), prostate (17%) and lung (15%). Nine hundred and ninety-eight of the new patients (74%) proceeded to have radiotherapy. Fifty-seven per cent were treated radically with curative or adjuvant intent, the remainder were treated palliatively for symptom control or local control. The most commonly used fractionation schedules were 31-35 fractions for radical treatment and 1-5 fractions for palliative treatment. Forty patients (4%) did not complete the treatment course as planned. Eighty-nine patients (9%) were retreated in the same time period. These workload statistics were helpful in determining ongoing workload and planning future expansion.