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.
