I am advised:
The Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital's oncology unit and radiation
oncology services opened in 1985.
Patients seeking treatment at the specialist oncology unit are those
patients referred to both medical oncology and radiation services.
The number of cancer patients receiving treatment is recorded in the
hospital's data collection and reporting system on the basis of occasions of
service. This means that a person may be counted more than once - for example,
if a patient is seen by a medical oncologist and then by a radiation
oncologist, they will be recorded as a new patient twice.
For this reason, it is more accurate to provide data on the number of
occasions of service received by cancer patients.
Since 1985 there have been 507,134 recorded outpatient occasions of service
by the hospital's oncology unit and radiation oncology services.
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