$10k meds go missing

NZ Post says sorry after misplacing cancer drugs. By Aaron Leaman

A cancer patient says his life was placed in danger after $10,000 worth of life-saving prescription medication was lost in the post.

Retired Waikato farmer Malcolm Hume’s monthly supply of ibrutinib was supposed to arrive at his rural address on January 18.

Hume, 66, has lymphoma and was prescribed the drug by doctors at Waikato Hospital after developing an adverse reaction chemotherapy treatment.

His medication eventually arrived on January 28 – a day after a replacement package was couriered to him.

NZ Post has apologised to Hume and promised to investigate how the drugs went missing.

Hume said the delay in getting his medication caused him to become gravely ill.

‘‘My white blood cell levels had crashed and staff asked me whether I’d been taking my medication.

‘‘I said I didn’t know they’d even been posted to me and I contacted police thinking some bastard had stolen them out of my letterbox or something.’’

Hume said a New Zealand manager contacted him to his Post on I’m not expecting people to crawl on their bellies but I want them to find out what went wrong. Wednesday to apologise.

‘‘I’m not expecting people to crawl on their bellies but I want them to find out what went wrong. This medication is life-saving stuff.’’

‘‘New Zealand Post has these ads on the telly saying they can deliver anything but my confidence in them is shaken.

The drugs are provided to Hume at no cost. Hume said his preference was to collect his medication in person.

New Zealand Post declined a media request for an interview but, in a statement, Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional service delivery manager Dean Horsup said the company was investigating the incident.

The delay medication error. in the delivery of the was due to human

Horsup said the original parcel never left the postal network and didn’t appear to be tampered with.

He planned to Friday.

Waikato DHB staff also declined to be interviewed but, in a statement, the board’s pharmacy manager Jan Goddard said medication such as Hume’s couldn’t be collected from a community pharmacy.

In those circumstances, the ideal situation was for the patient to collect the medication during their appointment.

When this was not possible, the medication is sent via tracked courier parcel to the patient, normally arriving within a day. visit Hume on