Concern at the length of time the Southern District Health
Board has been waiting for a ruling on its controversial
"bridging the gap" pilot proposal was raised at this week's
hospitals' advisory committee meeting.
Committee member Richard Thomson said a lot of work had gone
into the proposal which would give some public cancer
patients the option of paying for "top up" chemotherapy drugs
which were unfunded.
The drugs would be administered in the public hospital along
with other treatment being received by the patients.
The Otago and Southland boards agreed in March there should
be a year-long pilot of the proposal, which was expected to
involve a handful of patients.
Oncologist Chris Jackson, who promoted the proposal, advised
the board earlier in the year that there would be patients
ready to receive such treatments as soon as the pilot
started.
The proposal would require approval from the Minister of
Health, Tony Ryall, to proceed, but to date no decision has
been made.
Dunedin chief operating officer Vivian Blake said the issue
was raised regularly at monthly Ministry of Health monitoring
meetings.
Mr Ryall's office advised yesterday that there would be an "
announcement shortly", but could not be more specific about
the timing.
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