Wairarapa cancer treatments on cards

Wairarapa District Health Board chairman Derek Milne said senior clinicians were investigating what cancer treatments could be safely and properly delivered in Wairarapa.

Options are on the table for some cancer treatments to be carried out in Wairarapa.

Cancer patients have to travel to Palmerston North and Wellington's cancer centres to receive treatments, such as chemotherapy.

Wairarapa District Health Board chairman Derek Milne said senior clinicians were investigating what treatments could be safely and properly delivered locally so people didn't have to travel. "What can be delivered here depends very much on the safety and feasibility of doing it."

Chemotherapy required strict safety plans because of the nature of the chemicals.

"We have to work out what can be done here and what can't," Mr Milne said. "It has to be affordable and it has to be safe."

The three Wellington region DHBs were working together on the project and MidCentral DHB would also be involved.

Bob Francis, former mayor of Masterton and former Wairarapa DHB chairman, spoke briefly about the issue to the crowd at the Cancer Society Relay for Life fundraising event on Saturday.

He is part of a working group considering the options for cancer services in Wairarapa.

"I think it would be so well-received, having a facility would be wonderful for the Wairarapa," Mr Francis said.

His wife, Eva, passed away from liver cancer last year, and he had to drive her to Wellington for treatment.

"The trips home were pretty tough."

The Cancer Society Wairarapa did a wonderful job of transporting people but it was an "onerous" trip for patients.

"If you are feeling very unwell, it is difficult."

Mr Francis said the project was expected to be completed in August.

Carey Virtue, executive director (operations) medicine cancer and community directorate, Capital & Coast DHB, said the Wellington Blood & Cancer Centre was reviewing how cancer services, particularly those involving chemotherapy, were delivered to people throughout the Wellington region.

"As part of this project we will be working with the Regional Cancer Treatment Service in MidCentral to look for opportunities to provide cancer services closer to home for Wairarapa patients.

"Cancer treatment and care is very complex and it is critical that any care delivered outside of the cancer centres in Wellington or MidCentral is clinically appropriate and safe for patients. It is very early days for this project and we are still in the initial stages of collecting information."

Cancer Society Wairarapa centre manager Jeanine Gribbin said it would be "marvellous" if people could be treated in Wairarapa.

Centre volunteers drive patients to get their treatment outside the region and as many as 56 people in one month had needed help with transport.

"You can imagine for the patient how much easier it would be," she said.

"It will alleviate the arduousness of that trip for many people."