KEY POINTS:
A leading cancer specialist has attacked new Government treatment targets, saying they could jeopardise the treatment of breast cancer patients.
The Government yesterday released national health care targets, including child immunisation rates, adolescent dental care and mental health.
For cancer care, the Health Targets document says: "All patients in category A, B and C wait less than eight weeks between first specialist assessment and the start of radiation oncology treatment."
But a 2001 Health Ministry document says the "maximum" waits should be: 24 hours for priority A patients (those with the most urgent medical need); priority B, two weeks; priority C, four weeks for curative treatment and two weeks for palliative care.
The four-week point for priority C curative patients has become the benchmark for measuring the problems keeping up with demand at the country's six cancer centres - problems which have led to many patients, mainly women following breast-cancer surgery, being sent to Australia for treatment.
Wellington Hospital's head of radiation oncology Dr David Lamb said an under-eight-weeks target was "completely unacceptable to the vast majority of people practising radiation treatment in this country".
The ministry said last night that there had been "no change in the current guidelines".
But Dr Lamb said clinicians had made it clear that "we would never move off the position that nobody should have to wait more than four weeks".
