Cancer patients face risk in funding row

Cancer patients from the Nelson region who need radiation treatment risk being caught up in a funding row between the Ministry of Health and district health boards.

Cancer Society Wellington manager Roger Taylor said hundreds of cancer patients from the greater Wellington region faced delays in vital treatment while the organisations dragged their heels over installing a third radiation machine at Wellington Hospital.

Mr Taylor said approval to buy the machine was given by the Health Ministry earlier this year, nine years after the need was first established.

But the equipment cannot be installed until an agreement is reached between the Ministry of Health and the health boards over who will pay the millions of dollars needed for the increased number of patients using the machine, he said.

It was hard to know how many people from the Nelson region would be affected. Waiting lists would increase without the machine, he said.

Nelson Cancer Society manager Kelly Atkinson said between 10 and 20 residents from the Nelson region went to Wellington for radiation treatment each year.

The majority of cancer patients from the region needing radiation treatment sought it in Christchurch, she said.

More Blenheim residents went to Wellington than those from the Nelson area.

source:www.stuff.co.nz