“If this private interest group decides to proceed we need to back them to the hilt,” she said.

The MP says securing the cash will require a community effort to “turn the heads” of medical professionals and organisations, along with bureaucratic statisticians.

Talks with an Orange-based doctor, who heads a consortium that’s well-advanced in its bid preparation, has revealed “how many players are involved” in the process of securing some of the available funding, and the statistic that’s apparently standing in Dubbo’s way.

“We have a lot more people to convince than the Federal Government,” Mrs Fardell said.

They include Sydney-based treatment facilities, divisions of general practice and Charles Sturt University.

The consortium has advised Mrs Fardell of it being “highly unlikely” that the Greater Western Area Health Service, with a population of 300,000, would be granted more than one cancer centre offering radiotherapy.

There are two radiotherapy bunkers in the plan for the new Orange Base Hospital, Mr Fardell says.

“We have to ask government, can you look at things differently,” she said.

This year the NSW Cancer Council told the State Government that the introduction of radiotherapy services should be considered for Dubbo Base Hospital.

Last weekend the Federal Government called for applications for funding from $560 million set aside for about 10 regional cancer centres that aim to “close the gap in cancer outcomes between the city and the country”.

Yesterday, Greater Western Area Health Service chief executive Danny O ‘Connor reported it was speaking with several partners, public and private, regarding a possible submission.

Mrs Fardell has made approaches to NSW health minister Carmel Tebbutt about getting radiotherapy equipment for Dubbo.

“On the understanding that GWAHS aren’t going too well, if Orange were to have one, Dubbo perhaps could have the other if private interest was involved,” she said.

The MP recalled that when Dubbo Base Hospital missed out on MRI equipment, a private practice installed it for both “private and public patients”.

Mrs Fardell says communities, mayors and politicians across the Orana region would “all fight for the same thing”.

“For us to get a radiotherapy unit, we have a lot of work to do in a very short time,” she said.

kim.bartley@ruralpress.co m