DHBs in cancer treatment row

A spat has broken out between two Auckland health boards over a deterioration in access to radiation treatment for cancer.

Waitemata District Health Board chief executive Dave Davies has threatened to investigate other options for the provision of the service for cancer patients in his district after it was revealed that access for them had deteriorated more than for those who live in the neighbouring Auckland DHB's patch.

Waitemata's communications manager, Lydia Aydon, said last night the other options included purchasing treatment from New Zealand's first private radiotherapy clinic, Auckland Radiation Oncology, based in Epsom, or from one of the other public cancer centres.

Mr Davies said Waitemata sent all its cancer patients who needed radiation treatment to the Auckland DHB cancer centre. "Auckland DHB's own performance in this target was ahead of ours and I would expect equitable access for Waitemata patients.

"Auckland [DHB] must do better than this ..."

In the ministry's health target performance report for the three months to last September the DHBs served by the Auckland Cancer Centre fully achieved the target: that all priority C patients needing radiation treatment start their course within six weeks of referral by a specialist.

But in the latest report, covering the December quarter, this declined slightly, to 89 per cent of patients from Waitemata; Counties Manukau, 92 per cent; Auckland, 96 per cent; and Northland, 98 per cent.

Auckland DHB chief executive Garry Smith attributed the deterioration to an influx of new patients and the decommissioning of one treatment machine for replacement late last year.

To address the deterioration, longer operating hours were re-introduced, and some patients took up the offer of being treated at the Waikato Cancer Centre in Hamilton.