Cancer patients face weeks of waiting for treatment

Some cancer patients in Auckland have waited up to nine weeks for chemotherapy treatment as the district health board struggles to keep pace with increasing demand.

About 160 people were waiting for their chemotherapy to begin over the Christmas break but doctors say that number is down to about 80 to 90.

People can now expect to wait about a month for treatment, depending on how curable their cancer is.

Some patients, frustrated and anxious about the waiting times, have opted for costly private treatment.

Hospital general manager Dr Nigel Murray says the waiting times are unacceptable and a strategic plan is needed to address a growing problem in Auckland and throughout the country.

In August 2003, the Herald reported that for the first time cancer patients in Auckland and Northland had to wait for chemotherapy.

Dr Richard Sullivan, clinical director of oncology services at Auckland City Hospital, said the waiting list had been a problem for the past 18 months, and had been exacerbated over Christmas by the loss of five out of 15 nurses.

"It's an increasing challenge and unfortunately it's becoming an increasing challenge internationally with the ageing population, the increasing numbers of drugs and the frequency that we treat patients."

Ministry of Health guidelines require that patients be seen by a specialist within four weeks of referral. There are no guidelines specifying how soon they should have treatment.

Dr Sullivan said the hospital had implemented a priority system, which meant patients with highly curable cancer were treated almost immediately.

Those for whom chemotherapy would increase their statistical chances of survival were likely to wait.

Patients who had terminal cancer - the biggest group, where treatment was palliative and aimed at improving their quality of life, prolonging it by "weeks, months or years" - waited up to six weeks.

It was possible that some patients' lives were put at greater risk because of the delay, he said.

Titirangi man Chris Martin was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer a week before Christmas and was told he had months to live.

He was waiting to find out when his chemotherapy treatment could begin and whether a tumour in his brain could be operated on. The 54-year-old, who had his tests done privately, was told at his second specialist appointment on January 17 that he would have to wait six to seven weeks to start the treatment.

His wife, Janet, said they were shocked to discover it could not start immediately.

Their medical insurance did not cover the cost of chemotherapy, which the couple hoped could give Mr Martin years rather than months to live.

Mr Martin had to give up his job as a staff trainer and assessor for the Department of Corrections because of pain and fatigue. He had lost 20kg in the past few months.

"We have enough stress as it is without waiting for treatment," said Mrs Martin.

"My husband has paid his taxes ... he's never been on the dole.

"The one time we need some help, we have to wait. He wonders if he has been put on the scrap-heap."

A 42-year-old Three Kings woman, whose breast cancer has spread to her bone marrow, is paying $360 a week for private chemotherapy until her treatment starts at Auckland City Hospital on February 9 - 10 weeks after she was put on the waiting list. The woman, who has a 3-year-old daughter, said she and her husband were using a combination of health insurance and savings to pay for the treatment.