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Waikato tops the Country with Cancer services
Waikato tops the Country with Cancer services
A top placing in today’s publication of the six health targets results is a gratifying result confirming that Waikato provides the best access to radiotherapy services in the country, says Waikato DHB chief executive Craig Climo.
Waikato DHB, which also provides regional oncology
services for Lakes and Bay of Plenty DHBs, not only met the
six week target but also a four week target not due in place
until December this year.
Clinical director Dr Leanne
Tyrie said the Waikato DHB-provided service was very patient
focused.
“We want to treat people as we would want to be
treated ourselves. Cancer is such a stressful diagnosis.
Timely therapy reduces the stress, gives the patient a
focus, and a plan and that leads to a better treatment
experience.”
The target is that everyone needing
radiation treatment will have this within six weeks of his
or her first specialist assessment.
“Radiotherapy
continues to be a star performer for us,” said Mr
Climo.
Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy beams
to kill cancer cells or prevent them from reproducing.
The
two main goals are to:
• Cure cancers where possible
• Relieve symptoms in non curable situations
A
team provides the treatment:
• radiation oncologist is a doctor who specialises in the use of radiation in the treatment of cancer and who decides on and supervises treatment
• radiation therapist is the technologist who prepares the patient and gives treatment
• oncology
nurse specialises in the care of patients with cancer
• medical physicists who work directly with the team
in the treatment planning and delivery.
“Nobody likes a
patient to wait for cancer treatment so if we could meet a
two week target, we would,” said Dr Tyrie.
Oncology
operations manager Shelley Donnell said the service
concentrated on ensuring its processes were right. By doing
that, it made it easier to meet the target.
“Our target is actually measured from when you first see your radiation oncologist and is only measuring radiation capacity not other therapies such as chemotherapy.”
“The most
stressful part is from waiting from diagnosis to seeing a
radiation oncologist. That can be awfully long and still
needs to be addressed.
“Once here though we do our
best to make sure the next part of the journey is less
stressful.”
Patients may be waiting for scans so they
are not included in the target and excludes those who put
their radiation therapy off for personal reasons.
“Plus
a patient may come in and Leanne decides she needs more x
rays, more follow up from other services – they’re not
ready to treat – so they are excluded out of the target
and sometimes we have patients who go away and want to think
about it before committing to treatment.
“There are a whole lot of complex reasons why patients may not have their treatment started at a particular time
“The target is all about capacity here.”
However, while Waikato is leading the way now, Dr Tyrie warned that staffing issues could create problems later this year.
By next week, Waikato will be seven radiation therapists and one physicist down. Waikato usually employs 33 therapists and two physicists.
“We are trying to recruit overseas and encouraging radiation therapists to come back from overseas and we are encouraging our part timers to pick up more time but there is a national shortage,” said Ms Donnell.
About 38 train each year for a three-year
radiation therapist degree through Otago University at the
Wellington School of Medicine campus.
Waikato takes three
each year.
“Those shortages might impact on our ability
to meet that four week target,” she said.
“It will be
interesting to see what the credit crunch in the UK does for
us. That is where a lot of our New Zealand trained staff are
based. Working overseas may become less attractive.
“
Dr Tyrie said young people finishing their OE tend to
like coming back to Waikato.
“They enjoy working here;
they want to come back to us.”
It was no surprise to
see radiotherapy treatment as one of the health targets, she
said.
“The public sector has been chronically under resourced in terms of both workforce and technology capacity. This is a driver to improve that across the country.
“I’m not surprised we have met it because
we’ve always been very creative and we’ve always been
the first to do most things in terms of meeting targets.
It’s gratifying. We may not continue to meet it because of
staffing issues but it will improve healthcare resource to
radiation departments across the country.”
Dr Tyrie
predicts a cancer target will remain but could change to
chemotherapy waiting times.
“Chemotherapy at Waikato is
now going to be our new focus because it is under-resourced
in terms of staff and our facility is cramped.”
Waikato is not treating more radiation patients but is doing it differently in a more labour intensive way making it more complex than it was a decade ago. This places strain on capacity.
“I think the treatment of cancer is foremost
in mo
st New Zealanders’ minds. High quality timely
treatment is what they want.
“You can put off smoking
for another day perhaps but I don’t think you’ll put off
your cancer treatment,” she
said.
ends
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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