The trajectory of a cancer patient involves chronic care punctuated by periods of acute illness. After being diagnosed, the patient needs adjuvant therapies, after which, the patient goes into remission. Patients who go on to experience a relapse require new and more intensive therapies. That episode is followed by a honeymoon period, when the patient once again goes into remission and so on. When you're talking about cancer care, one-time funding doesn't do the job because patients experience a cycle of acute and less acute episodes for years.
Significant and meaningful investments are needed. Our computer systems are outdated, which ends up costing us a tremendous amount of time. Say Ms. Boniface goes to a patient's home to provide care, I can't get access to that information. The technology exists, but our current system merely returns the same information that the nurses have collected, the patient's family status, telephone numbers and so on. Everyone is constantly duplicating the exact same data that have already been collected.
Significant and meaningful investments on the system side would result in time savings, not only for health care workers, but also in terms of equipment, ensuring a smooth flow of information. That is crucial, but it would clearly require huge investments on a national scale.