This week the Otago Daily Times revealed cancer service clinicians had been raising concerns about their waiting lists since at least January: the radiation oncology waiting list reached a record 157 people shortly afterwards. Lung cancer patients in the Southern District Health Board region have the worst outcomes in New Zealand, at a 7 per cent lower survival rate than the national average. In February a "medical oncology harm register" was provided for board chief executive Chris Fleming, which recorded that 27 people had suffered harm while waiting for cancer treatment. Delays waiting for diagnosis and treatment meant a growth that could have been manageable instead grew rapidly, to the point of being terminal. She would have died on the waiting list [with] 100 per cent [certainty] if I had worked in a dairy or been a shopkeeper.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 16, 2021 21:11 UTC