By KEVIN TAYLOR
HAMILTON - The taxpayer has already paid $90,000 for Waikato and Bay of Plenty cancer patients to get treatment in Australia, and many more are waiting to go.
Nine patients from the region are now in Australia, and Health Waikato is searching for places for a further 23.
The cost to the taxpayer - $90,000, or $10,000 a patient - will rise to more than $300,000 if the 23 other patients go as well.
Health Waikato spokeswoman Karen Bennett said five patients had gone to Brisbane and four to Sydney.
The first patient, a 44-year-old Tauranga nurse, started cancer treatment in early November in Brisbane. Since then, eight other patients have made the trip.
Four are from Health Waikato's area, another is from Tauranga-based Pacific Health and three are from Lakeland Health in Rotorua.
Health Waikato, the regional cancer treatment centre for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, is battling shortages of radiation therapists and waiting for a new radiotherapy machine.
A Hamilton spokeswoman for the Health Funding Authority, Jan Barber, said the treatment generally lasted six to seven weeks.
It cost more to send patients to Australia than to treat them locally. The difference was mainly because of airfares and the exchange rate.
She did not have figures for the cost difference because it varied.
"It's a bit more, but it's not an enormous difference," she said.
The authority also paid for a support person to accompany a patient to Australia.
This cost about $750 for airfares alone.
The authority has said the Australian trips are a temporary measure.
Cancer patients wait for Australian beds
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