South Island district health boards are yet to appoint any of the dedicated cancer care co-ordination nurses to the roles announced in last year's budget.
Last May, Health Minister Tony Ryall announced the new initiative for dedicated cancer nurses to co-ordinate care and support for patients through the course of their treatment.
The initiative formed part of $33 million of new funding over four years for better and faster cancer treatment.
Ministry of Health cancer national clinical director Dr Andrew Simpson said through a spokeswoman that 10 district health boards, all in the North Island, had appointed 19 nurses.
Four boards had been forced to readvertise after finding no suitable candidates.
''Given the challenge of identifying 40 specialist nurses to fill the cancer nurse co-ordinator roles, the ministry is happy [that health boards] are progressing this as quickly as possible.''
The roles had to be structured to complement existing positions.
''All DHBs are putting considerable thought into how best to structure the cancer nurse co-ordinator roles to achieve the best outcome for their patients. This includes making decisions around whether the role should take a generalist or tumour-specific approach.''
Most cancer nurse co-ordinators were expected to be placed by the end of April.
