{"id":7771,"date":"2023-09-12T05:10:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T17:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7771"},"modified":"2023-09-12T05:10:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T17:10:36","slug":"cancer-patients-have-to-travel-for-treatment-due-to-doctor-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7771","title":{"rendered":"Cancer patients have to travel for treatment due to doctor shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Equitable access to cancer treatment is “broken”, with some patients paying up to $7000 in accommodation and travel as doctor shortages force them to other regions, the Cancer Society says.<\/p>\n

Patients must sometimes travel away from their homes and families for difficult treatments at hospitals in other regions. But as doctor shortages, like\u00a0those at Dunedin Hospital<\/a>, worsen, patients are increasingly being shunted between regions.<\/p>\n

The Cancer Society in Christchurch says it is having to use motels to house Otago and Southland cancer patients and their wh\u0101nau, because their other accommodation is full to overflowing.<\/p>\n

All 36 rooms at Christchurch’s Daffodil house and Daffodil lodge are full with patients from different districts.<\/p>\n

About a dozen patients have had to travel to Christchurch due to a lack of medical specialists in their area – and nine families are currently in motels.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Te Whatu Ora Health NZ apologised to cancer patients who may face disruption due to shortages of senior doctors at Dunedin Hospital.<\/p>\n

The oncology unit there should have eight specialists, but was down to just three and one of those plans to leave in November, meaning the hospital\u00a0is also\u00a0losing its accreditation<\/a>\u00a0to train junior oncology doctors too.<\/p>\n

Te Whatu Ora has told RNZ that healthcare vacancies are a national issue, with radiation oncologists the greatest challenge in the south. It was working on recruiting more senior doctors, and part-time locums and an international locum were being used to help fill the gaps at Dunedin Hospital.<\/p>\n

But it has also said the shortage could mean even more patients having to travel for treatment \u00a0– although it could not say how many.<\/p>\n

\n
Cancer Society Canterbury, West Coast, Otago and Southland service delivery manager Craig Watson told Checkpoint<\/em>‘s Lisa Owen the costs cancer patients had to cover to travel for treatment were substantial and needed to be looked at urgently.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It is a hard reality to face, when you’re diagnosed with cancer the first thing you need to do is leave your family behind as you go seek the treatment you need to survive or have a better quality of life,” Watson said.<\/p>\n

“That’s really critical. That happens every day anyway, because our systems are regionalised, but the impact at the moment now is larger.<\/p>\n

“What we’re really worried about at the moment … is the NTA system, the National Travel Allowance system.”<\/p>\n

If a patient is approved, the NTA helps subsidise their travel and accommodation, and offers reimbursements to a fixed amount.<\/p>\n

RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Equitable access to cancer treatment is “broken”, with some patients paying up to $7000 in accommodation and travel as doctor shortages force them to other regions, the Cancer Society says. Patients must sometimes travel away from their homes and families for difficult treatments at hospitals in other regions. But as doctor shortages, like\u00a0those at Dunedin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7773,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions\/7773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}