Gynaecological cancer patients forced to travel from Wellington to Christchurch for surgery
Photo:
123RF
Health New Zealand has confirmed that more than 100 women with gynaecological cancer in Wellington must travel to Christchurch for surgery.
Chief Medical Officer of Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, Andre Cromhout, confirmed that Wellington Hospital's sole gynaeoncologist - who left the service in November last year - would not be replaced.
In a bid to "better utilise available clinical expertise", Health New Zealand was consolidating its services, he said. It means gynaecological oncology surgery over the next four to five years, would take place "mainly in Christchurch and Auckland".
Cromhout said the result was that 130 women per year in the central region - Wellington, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, MidCentral, Whanganui, Taranaki and Hawke's Bay - would have to travel to Christchurch to receive more complex care.
He said there would be help with the logistical and financial challenges, but recognised "having to travel to Christchurch for treatment will be a significant inconvenience to many women and their families who are already distressed".
He said annually more than 600 women in the central region received gynae-oncology support and some surgery would still take place once-a-month in Wellington when a Christchurch-based gynaecological oncologist visited.
Other services, such as medical and radiation oncology and specialist nursing support for gynaecological oncology patients would also continue, he said.
"Our focus remains on ensuring we minimise the travel for patients and their families as much as possible. Work is underway to consider the best long-term approach for delivering gynaecological oncology services in the future.
"We don't anticipate that the decision to shift more acute surgeries from Wellington to Christchurch will materially affect wait times. These wait times will continue to be monitored."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
The health crisis pushed by a drug crisis
selective focus of negative and positive hiv blood sample test on red background Photo: Copyright: lightfieldstudios Six months after Fiji declared an HIV outbreak, driven largely by a growing methamphetamine crisis, UNAIDS' Pacific advisor says other countries around the region are at risk of following suit. "It does worry me. We have all the risk factors in all the countries that could be another possible crisis like what's happening in Fiji," says Renata Ram, whose work covers 14 Pacific Islands countries. She says testing of HIV around the Pacific Islands is poor, so they don't have a clear picture of the scale of the problem, but several countries including Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga have reported an increasing number of cases. Fiji had 1583 new cases last year. "This is the highest total that they've ever seen. It's a 281 percent increase from 2023," says Ram. And while free, life-saving treatment is available, barriers including delays in receiving results, a mobile population, spread-out geography and a stigma about the disease all play in to a relatively low uptake of treatment. Ram has been working for UNAIDS since 2017, and said the landscape had changed in that time. "The HIV epidemic was largely driven by sexual transmission, however in early 2019 we started hearing sporadic cases of injecting drug use and domestic drug use, due to all this drug trafficking that was happening through Fiji." One practice that had received a lot of attention and blame for spreading the virus is called 'bluetoothing", where after one person gets a hit, they withdraw their blood and share it with other people. It is a high-risk way of 'sharing' a high, which experts say does not work. It comes with a high risk of contracting various blood-borne diseases, including HIV. But Ram said this had been overblown. "There's been a lot of sensationalisation around bluetoothing, but it's not the main way people who use drugs actually consume their drugs, it's a very small percentage of people who actually do this. "Sharing needles is the main cause." Ram said that, of the data they were able to get, about 48 percent of people in Fiji had contracted HIV through injecting drugs, compared to about 43 percent from sexual transmission. There were also 32 cases last year of mother-to-child transmission. It is clear that behind the HIV crisis is a drug crisis. Behind the drug crisis was a change in the way that drug trafficking through - and to - Fiji worked. On today's episode of The Detail, an expert in transnational crime explains how drug trafficking through Fiji has changed in the past several years to depend more on local syndicates, and the effect this is having on Fiji's drug use and resulting HIV rates. José Sousa-Santos, lead and convenor of the Pacific Regional Security Hub at the University of Canterbury, said drugs came through the Pacific Islands to New Zealand and Australia, which, despite being small markets, had some of the highest prices, due to tight control of the market. But when local traffickers were paid in drugs instead of cash, they needed a local market to sell to. "It's not the larger cartels that are looking at getting the local populations addicted, it's the smaller regional syndicates, the national syndicates, which can now really profit from these local markets. "This creates 'foot soldiers' who help move drugs through. "It leads us to see the roadmap toward Fiji in the future - if this is not addressed urgently - becoming a semi narco state ... where the syndicates and the cartels have undue and strong influence over the state itself and where the government will struggle to maintain law enforcement," he says. Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .

RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Gynaecological cancer patients forced to travel from Wellington to Christchurch for surgery
Health New Zealand has confirmed that more than 100 women with gynaecological cancer in Wellington must travel to Christchurch for surgery. Photo: 123RF Health New Zealand has confirmed that more than 100 women with gynaecological cancer in Wellington must travel to Christchurch for surgery. Chief Medical Officer of Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, Andre Cromhout, confirmed that Wellington Hospital's sole gynaeoncologist - who left the service in November last year - would not be replaced. In a bid to "better utilise available clinical expertise", Health New Zealand was consolidating its services, he said. It means gynaecological oncology surgery over the next four to five years, would take place "mainly in Christchurch and Auckland". Cromhout said the result was that 130 women per year in the central region - Wellington, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, MidCentral, Whanganui, Taranaki and Hawke's Bay - would have to travel to Christchurch to receive more complex care. He said there would be help with the logistical and financial challenges, but recognised "having to travel to Christchurch for treatment will be a significant inconvenience to many women and their families who are already distressed". He said annually more than 600 women in the central region received gynae-oncology support and some surgery would still take place once-a-month in Wellington when a Christchurch-based gynaecological oncologist visited. Other services, such as medical and radiation oncology and specialist nursing support for gynaecological oncology patients would also continue, he said. "Our focus remains on ensuring we minimise the travel for patients and their families as much as possible. Work is underway to consider the best long-term approach for delivering gynaecological oncology services in the future. "We don't anticipate that the decision to shift more acute surgeries from Wellington to Christchurch will materially affect wait times. These wait times will continue to be monitored." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Drag racing-loving teen Katie Iti dies from flu complications
Katie Iti's passion was drag racing. Photo: Supplied The father of a Lower Hutt teenager who died in hospital with flu symptoms says she had only been unwell for a few days. Shayne Iti said his 15-year-old daughter Katie Margaret Iti died on Saturday in Hutt Hospital from complications of influenza B. "She fell ill probably Tuesday last week and just was getting slightly worse over the few days - we were just monitoring her at home," he said. "And then I woke up early Saturday morning to hear her moaning and groaning and I was like 'I can't see my baby like this anymore, let's go to the hospital'." Iti said Katie was seen by a cardiologist and a surgeon, and tests found fluid around her heart. He thought she appeared to improve over the day and another scan confirmed the fluid had not increased. But 13 hours after her arrival, Katie suddenly deteriorated and her heart stopped, Iti said. "She was gone. I was with her right up until the end." Iti said Katie's passion was drag racing and she had completed her first season of racing her own car. She became interested in the motorsport after she and Iti began helping his boss build a drag racing car. After that Katie was hooked, going to 'the drags' as often as she could, an enthusiasm also supported by mum Jamie Halse. "She started getting quite friendly with all the junior drag racers because it's quite big - the scene," Iti said. "She always wanted her own car and started jumping into people's cars and sitting in them and dreaming about having one, one day." When it became known that Katie wanted to 'go down the strip', 2022 New Zealand Super Street Champion Cindy Mendoza took her for the ride. "It spiralled on from there because she wanted to do it herself," Iti said. "I used to say to her 'No, you can't have one, we can't really afford it' but then she'd go round the pits talking to all the other adults telling them to 'Go tell my Dad to get me a drag car' and, of course, everyone was always in my ear about getting her a car so we made it happen." Iti taught Katie to drive the manuel racing car when she was 14, starting off on grass and then in a carpark. Once she mastered it, the then-Year 10 Naenae College student competed in her first race in October, racing the entire season. Katie's car. Photo: Supplied Though Katie had no siblings, Iti described her as "a sister to everyone" and said the drag racing community had been hard hit by her death. "They're all struggling. Everyone's trying to lean against each other just 'cos they're all struggling," he said. "Everyone's in complete disbelief. I'm still in disbelief. I'm still expecting her to jump out and give me a fright. "We can't even stay in our own house at the moment because it just feels so empty." Iti said the drag racing community would take cars to Katie's funeral in Wainuiomata on Thursday and there would be a tribute to the teen's love of the sport. Online tributes had been flowing with descriptions of Katie as a "beautiful soul" who was always happy, smiling, respectful, fun and entertaining. A girl with a passion for drag racing and life, one person wrote. "In life and in our sport you meet lots of different people , some leave a lasting memory when they are gone and Katie Iti was one of those," another person wrote on the Wild Bunch New Zealand Facebook page. "Her raw passion and enthusiasm was genuine and unwavering and her love of our sport and those in it knew no bounds. "Personally thank you Katie for all the messages and gifts and for just being yourself in amongst a sea of testosterone and competitiveness you proved the sport is so much more than that..." Online tributes had been flowing with descriptions of Katie as a "beautiful soul" who was always happy, smiling, respectful, fun and entertaining. Photo: Supplied Iti said some online reports that Katie had died in a drag racing event were incorrect. "The season's over. It has been for quite some time." He said Katie had the best safety equipment possible and they had never had any incidents while racing. Iti said Katie's driving partner Azaliya would continue her legacy, and keep racing the number 109 car. Health New Zealand said without a privacy waiver it could not confirm if Katie's death was referred to the Coroner or if Hutt Hospital was conducting a review. Iti said Katie's initial symptoms appeared to be routine - an achy body, runny nose, and cough - and his message to other families was to get vaccinated. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.