KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's first private radiation therapy clinic is expected to end cancer patients being sent to Australia to beat "unacceptable" treatment delays at public hospitals.
MercyAscot and Southern Cross Hospitals said yesterday they would build the clinic at MercyAscot's hospital site in Epsom, Auckland.
It would start treating
patients by October next year.
Currently, radiation therapy is provided only at six public hospitals: Auckland City, Waikato, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The Auckland District Health Board has postponed plans for a satellite centre at North Shore Hospital and earlier plans for a public-private centre there collapsed after lack of state-sector enthusiasm.
Because of staffing and equipment shortages, the public system has struggled to provide sufficient services for more than a decade, first importing teams of radiation therapists from Australia and now sending patients there for treatment.
MercyAscot chairman Richard Fisher said the new joint-venture clinic aimed to complement the public system. "I think it will take enough people away from the public system that there won't be a need for transfer across the Tasman."
The clinic was aimed at private patients but could gear up for public hospital referrals if asked to. Dr Fisher said the scheme was prompted by requests from doctors and patients, due in part to delays for treatment.
Government statistics for priority patients who started therapy in February, the latest national figures available, show that 22 per cent had waited longer than the recommended maximum of four weeks from the decision to use radiation.
The Breast Cancer Foundation welcomed the scheme, saying it was about time something was done to alleviate the "unacceptable" waiting times.
"This has been a serious problem for far too long, with patients seriously compromised," said spokeswoman Dr Belinda Scott. "New Zealand has long fallen behind other OECD countries with its lack of private cancer treatment centres."
Dr Fisher was confident that with the increase in the number of radiation therapists in training, the clinic could attract enough of them and other staff without being a drain on the public system.
"Our understanding is that there are more graduates than jobs."
But this was disputed by the therapists' union. "It's going to introduce a competitive labour market," said national secretary Dr Deborah Powell. "The numbers training are not even meeting current demand. To put more demand into the system is going to put more pressure on it."
The Auckland health board was also worried about the private scheme.
Chief executive Garry Smith said it could "fragment" public services and have a serious impact on the workforce.
Southern Cross Health Insurance - the country's dominant health insurer and a separate entity from the hospitals division that is in the radiotherapy venture - said it would consider paying for members to be treated at the clinic.
"[Our] policies have not previously included private radiotherapy benefits because such services have not been available in New Zealand."
