A Message from Terrence Sullivan, PhD
President and CEO, Cancer Care Ontario
I am proud to present the 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan.
The pages ahead set out an action plan that will raise the bar on cancer services in Ontario. Taken together, the steps in this plan will measurably reduce the burden of cancer and improve the health and quality of life of cancer patients.
The 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan encompasses the entire cancer journey, beginning with prevention and extending through to treatment, palliation and end-of-life care. Organized around six goals, the OCP is tightly focused on a set of priority initiatives that are high-impact, realistic and well aligned with the health system transformations underway in Ontario.
"The foundation we have built together is a significant accomplishment, but what we have done is turn around a crisis so that together we can set our sights on making a difference for cancer patients present and future."
At the turn of the decade, cancer services in Ontario were suffering from a crisis of access and quality. Patients were being sent to the United States to receive radiation treatment, and public confidence in cancer services had eroded. Since launching the first Ontario Cancer Plan in 2004, Ontario has made substantial advances against cancer. Indeed, the last three years have been spent building a solid foundation for significant and required improvements in service capacity, performance and knowledge about cancer.
With the leadership of the Ontario government, health professionals, clinical leaders and local organizations across Ontario, we have significantly improved wait times for cancer treatment. Cancer Care Ontario is particularly proud of our partnership with the Ontario government to establish the first provincial system for measuring, managing and publicly reporting wait times. We have established an internationally recognized approach to systematically improving the performance of cancer services. Ontario is using electronic information systems to improve the safety and accessibility of cancer services, including innovations that enable patients to manage their own care. And three breakthroughs in cancer prevention and early detection – Smoke-Free Ontario, ColonCancerCheck and the HPV vaccination program to prevent cervical cancer – are saving lives.
The foundation we have built together is a significant accomplishment. But what we have done is turn around a crisis so that together we can set our sights on making a difference for cancer patients present and future. What has been accomplished in the last three years is not enough to meet the service and prevention challenges of a rising cancer burden, or to place Ontario at the forefront of biological research. It is not enough to meet the imperative of rapidly translating new knowledge into improvements in clinical practice and health services. It is a starting point.
Driven by an aging and growing population, over the next 10 years Ontario will see an unprecedented rise in the number of people diagnosed and living with cancer. In the years ahead, with 44% of men and 39% of women expected to develop cancer, this disease will touch the lives of even more of us and of our families and friends. And we will need to adapt our services rapidly to the explosion molecular oncology tests and treatments which are already upon us.
Given the size of the challenge, Cancer Care Ontario’s aspiration for the 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan is to create the best cancer system in the world. Sitting as we are in the economic heartland of our country and in one of the richest environments in the world for health science, we in Ontario should not should not settle for anything less.
With well-planned and sustained investment, skillful leadership from clinicians and institutions, and a systematic focus on implementation we will bring down rising cancer rates and provide every Ontario cancer patient with the best care every step of the way. We are certainly up to the challenge; over the past few years Ontario has demonstrated, in cancer and many other areas of health care, a considerable capacity to innovate and improve.
The Ontario Cancer Plan is a roadmap for the entire cancer care system; it’s for all of us involved in fighting cancer and caring for those living with this disease. It sets out the actions that Cancer Care Ontario is committed to take, and describes the partnerships that are crucial to realizing our goals.
I would like to thank the many individuals and partner organizations across all areas of the province who generously provided input into the 2008-2011 Ontario Cancer Plan. Together we can achieve the best cancer system for Ontarians.