Whangārei Hospital gets new cancer radiation oncology facility for Northland patients

Northland DHB estimates about 500-600 Northlanders will require radiation therapy by 2025. Photo / Tania Whyte

Northland cancer patients might soon be spared from travelling to Auckland for radiation treatment after Whangārei Hospital secured Crown funding for a new radiation oncology facility.

The facility will be an extension of the Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre, which currently provides outpatient cancer and blood services along with most chemotherapy treatments.

However, about 470 Northlanders currently have to travel to Auckland for radiation therapy each year because the region doesn't have the appropriate equipment.

The number is expected to increase to between 500 and 600 patients by 2025, in time with the planned opening of the new facility.

It will include one linear accelerator (Linac) – a machine that aims radiation at cancer tumours – with additional space for a second Linac in the future, a CT scanner and an expansion of the existing cancer treatment centre.

One Linac machine provides capacity for 370 patients per year.

"The development of a radiation oncology facility in Northland will address several significant issues for the regional service," Northland District Health Board chief executive Dr Nick Chamberlain said.

A linear accelerator at Auckland Radiation Oncology. Photo / NZME

Auckland Hospital is equipped with six Linac machines that haven't covered the demand for radiotherapy since 2017.

Northland patients accounted for about one Linac of the regional demand, so establishing a facility locally would significantly improve access to radiotherapy for Northlanders, Chamberlain said.

Facilities at the Jim Carney Cancer Centre in Whangārei. Photo / Tania Whyte

"A large proportion of Northland patients who now receive either radiotherapy or combined radiotherapy-chemotherapy treatment at Auckland Hospital would receive this treatment in Whangārei, so demand for chemotherapy will immediately increase."

The Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre was opened in 2014 after efforts by the community and the Northland DHB to raise $5 million for its construction.

The centre is named after Northland philanthropist Jim Carney, who died from bone cancer, and has nine treatment spaces, five consultation rooms, a child area and a meeting room for family conferences.

Northland DHB has not yet revealed how much the new facility will cost as it is deemed commercially sensitive.

The Jim Carney Cancer Treatment Centre was opened in 2014. Photo / Michael Cunningham