Reconstruction waiting list opened to cancer survivors

Relevant offers

Health

ACC levies may climb again Ageing population lifts death rate Repairs force disabled red-zoner to sleep outdoors Suing doctors a return to 'dark days', court told 5000 deaths after surgery each year - report Thousands die each year post surgery Swimming again after tumour removed PM backs plane flu scare response Whooping cough strikes baby Caring for these kids a job for life

Hutt hospital has finally made its breast reconstruction waiting list open to breast cancer survivors in the central region, nearly four years after it stopped taking referrals.

However, new referrals for surgery may have to wait up to three years for the patient backlog to clear. The hospital's regional plastic surgery unit stopped doing delayed reconstructions in 2006, because it did not have the operating capacity.

Since then, patients needing breast removal have been able to have immediate reconstructions during the same operation, but that was not always the best option for women needing continuing cancer treatment.

Hutt Valley District Health Board announced last June it would perform delayed reconstruction surgery for about 20 women dumped from the waiting list in 2006. However, it was unsure then when it would begin taking new referrals again. Chief executive Michael Hundleby said yesterday the service could be offered again through a combination of the hospital's new "clip-on" theatres and a negotiated contract with private hospitals.

The health board planned to do 100 delayed reconstructions each year, 50 of them at Lower Hutt's private Boulcott Hospital.

Reconstructions for new referrals would begin in July and Mr Hundleby said patients wanting surgery should contact their GP. "We are really pleased to be able to offer this surgery to women again. It's something our plastic surgeons have been wanting to do for a long time."

Liz Chapman, of Blenheim, who had breast removal surgery in 2001, said the move to begin offering reconstruction again was amazing. "[Three years] is a long time to wait but what I would do now is go to my doctor and say I'd like to go on the waiting list. Then, whenever my name comes up, I'd make the decision to go for it."

- © Fairfax NZ News