New linear accelerator at Palmerston North Hospital officially opened

Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere cuts the ribbon on the new linear accelertator at Palmerston North Hospital. He is helped by MidCentral DHB board deputy chair Oriana Paewai, left, and chief executive Kathryn Cook. Photo / Judith Lacy

It's not every day you see a blue ribbon around a $4 million piece of medical equipment but it's not every day a state-of-the-art cancer treatment tool is opened.

With Minister of Health Andrew Little unable to attend, Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere officially opened the linear accelerator at the city's hospital on Monday by cutting the blue ribbon with a pair of blue scissors.

The linear accelerator is a vital tool in the delivery of radiation therapy to cancer patients, and it started clinical work in December.

The linear accelerator would increase the number of patients able to treated on a linac from 20-25 people a day to up to 35, MidCentral DHB cancer screening, treatment and support clinical executive Dr Claire Hardie said.

"Treatment times will be significantly shortened compared to our older machines with average treatment appointments being 12 minutes," she said.

More than 1400 people a year pass through the Regional Cancer Treatment Service, with 26 per cent from Hawke's Bay and 20 per cent from Taranaki.

"The faster treatment times means patients are on the treatment couches for shorter periods of time, so the treatment is easier to tolerate, enables greater precision and means we can treat more people," Dr Hardie said.

The machine is the second of two replacement linear accelerators to be commissioned at Palmerston North Hospital, with the first replacement installed and commissioned in mid-2020. Each cost $4m and were part of a Government plan to replace 12 linear accelerators throughout New Zealand.

Dr Hardie said the next phase of upgrading radiation treatment services at the Regional Cancer Treatment Service will be one machine set up at each of Hastings and New Plymouth hospitals in satellite units to the main tertiary centre in Palmerston North, sparing patients from these regions travelling to Palmerston North.

"Rongo-mā-Tāne, or Rongo for short, is named after the overseer of food and peace and healing," Dr Hardie said.

"All of the linacs have now been renamed to emphasise a space of healing, and the naming relates not only to the linac but also to our staff. This reflects the jobs that our radiation therapists do and the connections they form with our patients with the name having mana and evoking emotions associated with healing, kindness and care."

On the ceiling of the Rongo treatment room is a New Zealand native bush pattern featuring a koru.

In announcing the funding in August 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said radiation is an effective form of cancer treatment, and one in two people with cancer would benefit from its use.

"But in New Zealand only one in three are currently accessing these services. That's why we are making the single largest government capital investment in it."