PCFA condemns funding axe and demands Prime Minister intervene

The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) has condemned the Albanese Government’s decision to end funding for its national Prostate Cancer Specialist Nursing Service, with the government redirecting financing to the McGrath Foundation despite its lack of specialist expertise in prostate cancer care.

The PCFA has confirmed that it received no prior notice of the decision from the government and was given no opportunity to consult on the proposed change. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced the decision publicly within an hour of informing the organisation.

Under the decision, funding for 96 Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurses within PCFA’s broader network of 131 Specialist Nurses will end when the organisation’s current grant agreement expires on 30 June 2027.

The decision has prompted sharp criticism from PCFA Chairman Adjunct Associate Professor Steve Callister AM.

“Defunding PCFA’s program, which provides a completely different service to the McGrath program, at a time when more than 300,000 Australian men are impacted by the disease is indefensible,” said Adjunct A/Professor Callister. “This program has been built over more than a decade and is trusted by men, families, clinicians and communities around the country. The Government has presented no credible case for dismantling it.”

The funding decision follows the Federal Government’s announcement last month that $46.5 million over five years, the equivalent to 60 full-time positions, would be moved to the McGrath Foundation.

Professor Damien Bolton, President, Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ), said “PCFA Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurses are embedded in hospital teams and provide support for patients at the time of diagnosis and in the months and years beyond their diagnosis, which is of unquestionable value. Any change to this nationally established service must be guided by clinical evidence and careful consultation. Men must not lose access to tumour-specific expertise or experience disruption to their continuity of care.”

After initially raising money for breast cancer nurses, the McGrath Foundation now provides care for all cancer types. It founded in 2005 by former Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath following the death of his wife Jane from breast cancer. In recent years, the Labor Government has shifted funding for 14 types of cancer from a range of individual charities and foundations to McGrath, representing tens of millions of dollars.

In a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, PCFA CEO Anne Savage criticised the lack of consultation with the specialist nursing workforce.

“The workforce was not consulted before the Government decided to end funding for their service. Their expertise cannot simply be transferred to another organisation or absorbed into a generic all-cancer nursing model,” said Savage. “Expanding one model of cancer nursing should not require the destruction of another.

More than 300,000 Australian men are alive today after a prostate cancer diagnosis, while around 29,000 more are expected to be diagnosed this year. PCFA’s model of care is distinct because it supports men beyond the initial treatment period, providing specialist care in the weeks, months and years following diagnosis.

That long-term model is now at the centre of the dispute, with PCFA warning that the government risks dismantling existing capability before any replacement service has demonstrated it can replicate the specialist expertise, clinical integration, continuity and national infrastructure already operating across the country.

“The Government must release the decision, its reasons, the evidence relied upon and its assessment of the consequences for patients and health services,” stressed Adjunct A/Professor Callister. “If it will not reconsider, Parliament must examine how this decision was made and why the Government’s own evaluation process has apparently been pre-empted.”

The criticism goes beyond a funding dispute. PCFA argues the government is effectively gambling with an established specialist workforce before proving that an alternative model can deliver equivalent care.

“You do not improve cancer care by downgrading expertise,” said Savage. “Once that workforce disperses, reversing the decision will not bring it back.”

The PCFA has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take the issue urgently to Cabinet and reverse the decision, allowing the specialist nursing service to continue through to 30 June 2031.

The organisation is also escalating its campaign, with PCFA set to hold The Big Aussie Day of Action on Thursday 15 October in an effort to save its specialist prostate cancer nursing workforce.

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