Extra cash boost for cancer treatment

The Government has announced a cash boost of nearly $4 million to help regional cancer centres provide faster treatment for patients.

Health Minister Tony Ryall says, "From the end of this year, the cancer treatment radiotherapy target moves from six weeks to a world-standard four weeks.

"DHBs have worked hard to achieve the improvements we have seen in the past year, where 99% of patients requiring treatment started within six weeks of their first specialist assessment.

"This extra investment is going toward new high-tech software that will deliver high quality treatment faster, improved patient management systems, and speeding up the commissioning of a new linear accelerator.

What it means is that:

• At MidCentral, patients are expected to start their treatment at least five days sooner
• At Wellington, patients are expected to start treatment at least one day sooner than now
• At Waikato, patients are expected to start treatment at least two days earlier
• Auckland will see up to five extra patients a day
• Southern will see up to 10 extra patients a day.

"National promised to reduce the length of time people had to wait for radiation treatment, and we have achieved this by listening to and supporting the hard working staff at DHBs around the country," Tony Ryall says.