Private cancer patients’ one-stop-shop
Private cancer patients will soon have access to both radiation and chemotherapy treatments under the same Wellington roof.
Resource consent for the construction of a $9 million radiation therapy facility, which will form part of the Bowen Icon Cancer Centre, has been lodged with the Wellington City Council.
If consent is signed off, two radiation bunkers will be built at Bowen Hospital at Crofton Downs, enabling the first radiation patient to be treated there by the end of the year.
At present, cancer patients wanting private radiation treatment have to travel to Auckland or Christchurch.
But if the new radiotherapy facility, to be built by private healthcare providers Acurity Health Group and Icon Group, received the green light, that travel will no longer be necessary.
Acurity owns Wakefield and Bowen hospitals in Wellington and other health facilities in Tauranga, Auckland and Hastings.
Director Dr Richard Grenfell believed the Bowen facility would help ease the burden on the public health system.
‘‘There is pressure on the ability to have radiotherapy in a timely manner and I think this will allow an individual to have that therapy very quickly.
‘‘Speed is important, of course, with malignancy - the longer it’s left, the worse it becomes ... I think it’s a real positive for Wellington and the central region of New Zealand.
‘‘Patients get very anxious around treatment, but we will provide an environment that’s relaxing while giving patients the choice,’’ Grenfell said.
The two bunkers were estimated to cost about $6m to build – the remaining $3m put aside for the project will be spent on what is called a Varian Truebeam Linear Accelerator.
The state-of-the-art equipment uses a special beam to target small and well-defined tumours, allowing patients to be treated quicker while minimising radiation exposure to other tissue and organs.
UCLA researchers say the equipment can reduce a treatment that once took from 10 to 30 minutes, to less than two minutes – that speed making for a more comfortable experience for patients.
Former Prime Minister Bill English opened the chemotherapy side of the centre in July last year.
He dismissed suggestions the public sector was failing to provide adequate cancer care.
About 63 new cancer cases were diagnosed each day, with the condition claiming 9000 lives each year. In 2012, the Ministry of Health recorded 21,814 cancer cases.
Grenfell said there would be ‘‘no wait time’’ at the private facility.
‘‘Making radiation oncology available gives patients greater choice in directing their care ... and also ensures continuity of care for those patients having both chemotherapy and radiotherapy,’’ Grenfell said.
Private patients with breast or prostate cancer were likely to be the biggest users of the facility, however lung cancer patients also responded well to radiation therapy.
‘‘We would expect to receive patients from the upper part of the South Island, Hawke’s Bay and perhaps Mid-central down ... we cover a fair area in Wellington, so we would expect to have patients from those areas,’’ Grenfell said.