Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:609;Page:6254] 
7.  
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (NZ National—Kaikoura) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Why are women with breast cancer still suffering delays of 12 weeks or more in Christchurch and Wellington to access radiotherapy when a new worldwide study clearly shows that patients waiting more than 8 weeks for radiotherapy have significantly higher local recurrence rates? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I am advised that in recent months no patients in Wellington have waited more than 12 weeks for radiotherapy. In Christchurch there are nine patients who are waiting more than 12 weeks and they are booked to start next week. Another nine are required to wait before receiving radiotherapy because they are undergoing other treatment as required by clinicians. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Why is it that Australia can offer New Zealand patients needing breast cancer or prostate cancer radiotherapy a wait of only 4 to 6 weeks while in New Zealand women have to risk losing their life or at the very least their breast because of this Minister’s inability to solve the waiting time problem despite her saying in 1998: “It is unbelievable that people may have to travel to Australia for what should be relatively routine treatment which is supposed to be a core service.”? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I stand by the comments I made in 1988 which the member has just read out. This Government has made huge progress in providing radiation therapy in New Zealand. For example when I became the Minister of Health 16 radiotherapists were being trained each year; 38 are now being trained— 
Opposition Member 
: Where are they then? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: For the information of the member who is baying over there they take 3 years to train. The first of those 38 graduates will come out at the end of this year. Perhaps at last some real progress will be made. This is something that that party was warned about in 1996 and it did nothing. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Is the time that patients are required to wait for cancer treatment improving? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes. I am advised that overall there has been an improvement in the waiting times for radiotherapy in New Zealand at all cancer centres. They have all made a huge effort to recruit staff. It has had to be from overseas because we have not trained enough of our own. They have streamlined their processes and are using the option of treatment in Australia so they can ensure that in the meantime women and men get appropriate treatment in a timely fashion. 
Pita Paraone 
: What is the point of women obtaining mammograms and undergoing surgery where needed when the essential radiotherapy they require is not made readily available thus negating both the mammogram and surgery? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Radiotherapy for women requiring treatment is available in New Zealand and we are improving on the time that they receive access to it. Mammography is a screening programme to help ensure that women have the best possible approach and advice and that if they do have a problem it is caught at an early stage. 
Heather Roy 
: Given that the Ministry of Health’s radiation treatment booking priorities recommend radiotherapy treatment within 4 weeks why is she not intervening to ensure that patients are given the option of having treatment in Australia in line with those guidelines which is much earlier than the current 12-week wait patients in Wellington must endure? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The member misunderstands the categories for waiting. In fact people who require urgent treatment for radiotherapy do not have to wait 12 weeks. The New Zealand cancer treatment working-party put in place the four different categories. People who are waiting 12 weeks for treatment have had to have chemotherapy or other treatment first. This Government has not stopped people from going to Australia. In fact we have ensured that people can have access to treatment in Australia—so we can provide the treatment—until we have enough of our own trained workforce to provide it in New Zealand. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: What is her response to constituent Margaret Morice who writes: “This delay amounts to fourteen or fifteen weeks after surgery”—in Wellington—“and is totally unacceptable. Again I reiterate my confoundment and despair with the health system which is third rate ... I am sorry I am not a famous person or even a damn boat in which case more money would have been readily available for staff and equipment.”; and when will she as Minister stop blaming National and face the fact that it is the Labour Government that is failing absolutely miserably to deliver an adequate health system to New Zealand? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The person who wrote to that member is incorrect. We are providing a very good health service in New Zealand and nobody in Wellington is having to wait longer than 12 weeks for cancer treatment. If that member and her party are so interested in cancer treatment why did they take no notice of the reports they received in 1996 1997 1998 and 1999 telling them that if they did not train more radiation therapists we would have a crisis in New Zealand? We have had to deal with that and fortunately we have made some real progress. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Why has she failed for 4 years to find a long-term solution to the radiation therapy waiting problem and why is $16000 per patient still being spent to send patients to Australia rather than developing a public-private partnership in New Zealand that would see new equipment costs shared and that equipment utilised much more effectively? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: This member has raised that issue before and it shows a high level of naivety. There might be a private provider with a piece of machinery. Who operates it? Do we get the cleaner to operate it or do we get a trained staff member to operate it? How can it be operated unless we have trained the people to do it? New Zealand was training 16 people a year. We could not even replace the people who were leaving. It has taken us 3 years to train the 38 people we will get at the end of this year. Why did that not start in 1996 when the previous Government was told? 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I seek leave to table the study from the  
Journal of Clinical Oncology  
called “Does Delay in Starting Treatment Affect the Outcomes of Radiotherapy? A Systemic Review”. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I seek leave to table a letter from Margaret Morice talking about her view that the health system in New Zealand is failing miserably. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.