Editorial: Waiting time at hospitals unacceptable

Health spending is up by 40 per cent on the past five years, proclaimed the Prime Minister in her Statement to Parliament this week. "We're seeing the results in more affordable primary care, more hospital treatments, higher quality and better co-ordinated mental health care, and more initiatives in public health." Try telling that to Titirangi man Chris Martin. He has a far different tale to tell, one in which he is still waiting to find out when he can begin chemotherapy treatment, despite being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer a week before Christmas. As does Dr Richard Sullivan, Auckland City Hospital's clinical director of oncology services, who acknowledges that such delays could be putting some cancer patients' lives at greater risk.

Mr Martin is suffering at the hands of a public health service that is palpably failing to supply a minimum expectation - assured access for those needing urgent treatment. About 160 patients were waiting for their treatment to begin over Christmas, but that number has since been reduced to 80 or 90. The hospital says patients can now anticipate a wait of about a month for treatment, depending on how curable their cancer is. Under the hospital's priority system those with terminal cancer - where treatment aims to improve and prolong life - can expect to wait up to six weeks.

There can be few more depressing commentaries on the public health system, the more so because the compromising of cancer patients' health is not new. Four years ago, breast cancer patients faced waits of five to six months for radiation therapy because of a shortage of therapists. Finally, the Government acted by sending patients to private hospitals in Australia. That papered over one crisis. But in August 2003 cancer patients in Auckland and Northland began to have to wait weeks for chemotherapy.

The reasons offered then were staff shortages and the increasing number of people diagnosed with cancer as the population aged. Ageing is a fact of life internationally but, depressingly, staffing difficulties are again being blamed for today's woes. In this case, it is the loss of five out of 15 nurses over Christmas. This, ironically, should be the time of the year when such problems are at a minimum because of the arrival of new graduates. In particular, extra therapists, trained as a response to the shortages of 2001, have become available. Yet, frustratingly, problems with staff persist.

Some patients, agitated by the waiting times and anxious about the consequences, have responded by spending large sums for private chemotherapy. Some can dip into health insurance or their savings. But for others it is not a practical proposition. They have no choice but to go on a waiting list - and to endure, along with their families, the stress of knowing they might die on it.

That is a completely untenable situation. If the district health board cannot cope, the Government must intervene. In the first instance, it could provide subsidies, perhaps through a form of voucher system, to allow patients to receive chemotherapy privately until Auckland City Hospital is able to treat them. If this does not suffice, it should ensure money is available to fly patients to Australia for private treatment.

Chris Martin's wife, Janet, voices a sentiment heard far too often. "My husband has paid his taxes ... he's never been on the dole. The one time we need some help, we have to wait." Such words make Helen Clark's Statement to Parliament sound like hollow bragging. If there must be waiting lists, they should extend only to non-urgent illnesses. As it is, the public health system is failing Mr Martin and other cancer patients denied adequate and timely treatment. The Government must make sure they have access to chemotherapy. It must also ensure a viable strategy is in place to cope with the inevitable increase in cancer cases. Anything less is unacceptable.