Canterbury clinicians are providing cover to keep the Southern District Health Board's radiation oncology service running during a looming staff shortage. "Canterbury are providing us with cover, but we will have to manage that very carefully," Mr Ng said. The SDHB recently had a blowout in its waiting list for radiation oncology treatment, which meant more than 150 people waited longer than they should for potentially life-saving treatment. Canterbury was also helping with the commissioning of the first of the service's two new Elektra linear accelerator machines, Mr Ng said. Ongoing issues have meant the first machine is still only operating at 70% capacity, but the Canterbury DHB chief physicist had been visiting Dunedin during weekends to help.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 26, 2019 19:36 UTC