On Monday, the government announced it had hit three milestones to improve healthcare in New Zealand. Photo: UnSplash/ Stephen Andrews
The Cancer Society says it will be a push to get 90 percent of patients starting to receive cancer treatment within a month.
New figures showed 86.3 percent nationally now receive treatment in that time period - up from 83.5 percent - and it's aiming to bring that up to 90 percent by 2030.
On Monday, the government announced it had hit three milestones to improve healthcare in New Zealand.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said data showed clear improvements, with shorter waits, faster treatment and more timely access to care benefiting patients.
"After years of decline, healthcare is improving steadily under this government," Brown said.
But the wait times for some districts, such as South Canterbury, had gone backwards.
Cancer Society spokesperson Craig Watson has told Checkpoint that's down to a number of factors, including access to specialists.
He said the overall increase in cancer patients receiving care quicker is, however, a real positive.
"I'm a southern boy, and unfortunately, some of the old DHB districts down here are some of the worst performing," he told Checkpoint.
"To get to that 90 percent target, it's going to be a big push, especially in the South Island."
Watson said access to specialists, linear accelerators and treatment in the south remained a problem.
"We saw a letter from a patient the other day who has confirmed bladder cancer, and she was told she needed a scan to get to her next part of treatment to decide whether to have surgery or further chemotherapy."
He said the letter told her there was a 55-week wait for the CT scan.
"This is someone who's got confirmed cancer. We hope that was an outlier in data as opposed to a trend.
"We're trying to support her and others as well to get closer access, but the capacity we're talking about as well is there's been a business case for, I think it's at least seven years now, to increase the accelerators in the South Island.
"We know we're critically short and that future planning takes time. So, we're really pushing to see that business case gets across the line to get some big expensive machines in that will actually shift the dial on access to cancer treatment in the south."
Watson said he hoped the letter had just been coded wrong as opposed to a normal wait time.
"She's 78 and that's not acceptable, but most likely that is true," he said.
"But we do know overall that the wait times in the south are quite long because that CT scan or diagnostic scan is what delays that access to that first specialist appointment.
"We've got some pretty long wait times where almost half the people in places like Nelson and Canterbury aren't seen within four months of needing to be seen, which is a very long time if you've got cancer."
Watson echoed comments by the health minister that radiology was an issue in the south.
"It absolutely is and that's why it was really great to see them announce last week an extra, I think it was 64,000 radiology procedures across New Zealand, along with colonoscopies as well.
"How they can deliver that, especially in the south, I don't understand, but it's really great to see that commitment of $65 million to really increase that access, which is genuinely a game changer.
"So, to see that in action now is really important and that's what we want to promote is Te Whare Ora and the other funders to think really strategically and maybe a bit differently to really ensure we get access to those scans. "
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
