Simeon Brown: Health Minister on the expansion of cancer treatment infusion centres across New Zealand
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What new cancer treatment facilities are being introduced in New Zealand?
More good news from the old health department. Cancer infusion services are expanding. We've got 14 new centres, 14 more being upgraded. That's an additional 218 chair days, a bit over $200 million from the budget to invest in all of this. Simeon Brown's the Health Minister. Morning. Good morning, Mike. What's the call on cancer treatment demand-wise?
Well, there's been a significant increase in the demand, partially because obviously we've got an aging population, but also because we as a government have invested in a significant number of additional cancer medicines, 33 new cancer medicines that were funded in Budget 24. And many of those require additional infusions. And so this is responding to the increased medicines that we're providing as a government. more people getting more modern treatments, which is meaning that they have greater survival responses to cancer diagnoses. And so this is responding to that, but it's also bringing those cancer treatments closer to home. And so, for example, when we announced this yesterday, we did that at Waitakere Hospital, which is going to start offering cancer infusions from tomorrow.
How is the demand for cancer treatments changing in New Zealand?
Up until today, everyone in the Waitakere area of West Auckland Quarter of a million people. If you require infusions, you have to travel into Auckland Hospital to get those infusions. So that's treating people closer to home in their community. It's going to make a big difference for patients.
So 218 chair days, how many people ultimately does that serve?
Well, we're expecting around another 13,000 additional cancer infusions. The exact number of patients will depend on how many infusions you require each year based on the type of treatment that you have. But ultimately, 218 chair days, three to five patients per chair per day. So it's up to around 1,000 additional patients. patients will be able to be treated, receive an infusion based upon this investment on a daily basis.
I know this gets complicated, but is this preventative in any way, shape or form? Are we just, as a nation, due to age, due to illness, due to diet, lack of exercise, all of those sort of things, are we simply getting sicker and we will forever need governments providing more money and more services to help us?
Well, we have to focus on prevention. We have to focus on early detection, and we also have to make sure we're treating people. And so we're focused on all of those areas. And in terms of the prevention and early detection, we've rolled out the lowering age of the bowel screening to 58. We're extending breast screening to age 74. We've got a huge amount of focus in those areas as well. But the reality is when people are diagnosed with cancer, we need to make sure that they receive the treatments that they need in a timely manner. And we need to provide those treatments closer to home. And that's what this rollout delivers.
So the $200 million, how many times could you have spent that elsewhere in health?
Look, there's always demand in our health system for further expenditure. I think for most New Zealanders, though, they would say cancer is right at the top of the list. Cancer is one of those top priorities. Everyone knows someone who's been affected by cancer or had cancer themselves. And making sure that we're providing those modern medicines closer to home is a top priority that we're focused on delivering. And that's why we invested... the additional money in Pharmac back in Budget 24. That's why we're investing in the rollout of additional cancer infusion centers closer to home. And particularly, I think travel is a big thing for people with cancer. They have to travel often for their infusions.
Delivering these services like the Waitakere Infusion Center at Waitakere Hospital is going to make a massive difference for patients. And for many patients, that's going to be life changing and actually mean they can start their treatment sooner and have a much better response to their treatment.
I hope it works. Wish you well.
Simon Brown, who's the health minister with us this morning.
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