By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter
Auckland hospital chiefs are refusing to sign a contract with health funders until they agree to pay more for treating cancer patients.
The drawn-out contract dispute hinges on a $20 increase per cancer treatment, said Auckland Healthcare chief executive Graeme Edmond.
Several hospitals which provided radiation therapy were receiving $224 a treatment, said Mr Edmond.
But the Ministry of Health had offered Auckland Healthcare just $204. The $20 gap added up to $1 million a year.
Auckland Healthcare planned to spend $3 million on a new linear accelerator and an oncology bunker, increasing the number of patients it was able to treat.
The Ministry of Health said it had asked all hospitals providing radiation therapy to increase their capacity for treating cancer patients.
Funding levels were based on how far along they were in that process.
Some hospitals were paid $204 a treatment, others $214 or $224. When Auckland Healthcare installed the new equipment it would receive the higher price, the ministry said.
Mr Edmond, appearing before a select committee at Parliament, said Auckland Healthcare intended to continue with plans to upgrade cancer facilities and would not allow the dispute to interfere with patient care.
But National Party associate health spokesman Paul Hutchison said the number of Auckland Healthcare cancer patients forced to wait longer than six weeks for treatment had increased 250 per cent in a little over a year.
Only 18 had waited longer than six weeks for treatment in November 1999. But by October last year, that figure had increased to 69.
Auckland Healthcare officials also faced intense questioning at yesterday's select committee about their flagship laboratory, LabPlus.
The $20 million facility failed to receive accreditation for two services last year and has suffered crippling staff shortages.
Mr Edmond said the problems identified by the accreditation agency were related to processes rather than technical quality. It had been logistically very difficult to bring together 13 labs previously scattered throughout the city.
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