Investigation finds Southern District Health Board’s cancer treatment delays harmed patients and breached their rights

The Southern District Health Board has been called out for cancer treatment delays that have been found to have harmed patients and breached their rights.

Clinicians and patients raised the alarm and Health and Disability Commissioner Morag McDowell started an investigation that found between 2016 and 2022 the Southern District Health Board:

• failed to recognise and respond to the clinical risk created by the lack of capacity within the Southern Blood and Cancer Service (SBCS);

• had poorly developed clinical governance systems that were not adequate to either delineate or minimise the risk across clinical services;

• caused patient harm by capacity issues within the SBCS and prolonged delays for first specialist assessments;

• failed to provide services to patients within the SBCS in a manner that minimised the potential harm to, and optimised the quality of life for, those patients, and therefore breached Right 4(4) of the Code.

The report found increasing demand for cancer services, which it attributed to a variety of factors including growing population, a 23% increase in annual cancer registrations from 2010 – 2019 and new medicines and treatments which can require additional staff input and time.

The Southern District Health Board covered the bottom of the South Island as far north as Waitaki and Queenstown, and has now part of Te Whatu Ora Southern.

Te Whatu Ora Southern has implemented a range of initiatives to address the concerns raised in the report. They have invested in SBCS with 24 new FTE employees hired across medical physicist, radiation therapists, administration staff, medical registers and nurses; however, they are struggling to recruit specialist medical officers across radiation oncology, medical oncology services and haematology. Te Whatu Ora Southern has rebuilt their risk management system and processes and strengthened their clinical governance and performance and accountability processes over the last two years. A working group is meeting weekly to provide waitlist monitoring and the oversight of the operational initiatives and strategies to help support the service and improve the experience of patients. Additionally, Te Whatu Ora Southern is outsourcing some telehealth First Specialist Appointments and outsourcing to private providers where there is capacity.

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