CDHB criticized for rescheduling hundreds of cancer appointments

Hundreds of Christchurch cancer appointments will be rescheduled over the next few weeks, and cancer survivors fear the service has reached a critical point.

The Canterbury District Board of Health department of oncology is operating well below its usual capacity, due to a significant number of planned and unplanned staff leave.

Medical Director Sue Nightingale said she has drastically reduced her ability to provide specialized evaluations and follow-up appointments.

“Currently, all new appointment requests and appointments for patients already in the system have been reprioritized … to ensure that those who need it most are seen as quickly as possible.”

This process will continue for the next several weeks and 275 appointments are likely to be affected.

Cancer survivor Tracey Stevenson was due to see an oncologist on October 2, but her appointment at Christchurch Hospital has been canceled.

A stage 3 tumor was removed in June.

“I had a CT scan a few weeks ago and the radiologist told me that there was a lymph node that he was concerned about and that he needed to see me a little sooner.

“The cancer nurse tried to get me an appointment earlier, but she couldn’t.”

Stevenson was told to wait until October, but received a call last week informing him of the cancellation.

“They couldn’t give me any indication of when I would have a new date.”

The situation is particularly scary for her, because if her cancer returns, it will most likely kill her.

“It is very scary to know that there is a cancer that is potentially growing in you that is not being treated.

“It may be nothing, but I don’t know. All I know is that they told me that if my cancer came back it would be aggressive and that they couldn’t cure me.”

“They would just treat my symptoms for the rest of my life.”

Stevenson criticized the cancellations for not being good enough.

“This is cancer, this is people’s lives.

“It is something that changes life, it is not an ingrown toenail.”

For people as sick as she could be, Stevenson said appointments must be available and on time, or people could be lost.

“It’s just awful, really.”

Nightingale said the DHB was doing its best to minimize the impact on patients and keep waiting times as low as possible.

“A waiting system for oncology appointments is being implemented to better maximize the department’s current capacity.

“This will cause patients to wait longer than usual for their appointments until the department is back at full capacity.”

A range of urgent solutions are being explored beyond the introduction of clinical prioritization, Nightingale said.

These include upgrading and redeploying trainees to meet increases in acute demand, urgently developing skilled nursing services to help manage patients in active care, exploring outsourcing options, and recruiting substitutes to help.

But Nightingale is reluctant to blame the delays on the build-up of Covid-19 or current pressure from the government to cut costs at the DHB.

Canterbury has the nation’s highest deficit at $ 170 million, and Crown Monitor Lester Levy is working with the board to cut spending by $ 56.9 million this year.

The situation has also seen the resignation of seven of the DHB senior executive team members and hundreds of hospital employees protesting in the streets.

“It is important to note that this situation has occurred due to the unplanned loss of staff and increased demand, and is not related in any way to the DHB savings plan.”

Nightingale said it’s also important to note that during Covid-19 Alert Levels 3 and 4, DHB’s Oncology Service continued to provide support to all current patients, using a combination of telephone appointments and minimal face-to-face appointments. .

According to the Cancer Society, cancellations at Christchurch Hospital are just one symptom of a national problem.

Medical Director Dr. Chris Jackson said that cancer cases in New Zealand are growing exponentially.

“Over the next 15 years, there will be a 50 percent increase in the number of people who need cancer services.

“It’s difficult for oncology departments to keep up with demand, they’ve all been working at or near capacity for quite some time.”

When services across the country are saturated with patients, downsizing for whatever reason puts extraordinary pressure on the system, he said.

The solution lies in making sure services are well funded and increasing focus on building the workforce in the years to come.

“Specialists don’t come out of nowhere. They require a lot of training and it takes a long time to get a specialist to fill a consultant position.

“You need to have very long horizons, and unfortunately DHBs have focused a lot on short-term needs rather than long-term planning.”

But Jackson believes the newly established Cancer Control Agency, Te Aho or Te Kahu, will help.

“I’m hopeful that one of the things the agency will do is focus on growing the oncology workforce, because that’s clearly the priority.”