Patient advocate Melissa Vining worked tirelessly to improve cancer services and helped establish the Southland Charity Hospital.
Photograph: Provided / Facebook

Melissa Vining has criticized the waiting times faced by Southland cancer patients, revealing her family had been diagnosed with cancer once again after her husband’s death.

Cancer treatment advocate made this statement to Susie Ferguson. saturday morning, as he described his almost weekly correspondence with patients facing longer-than-expected waiting times for cancer diagnostic services at the Southern District Health Board, now called Te Whatu Ora Southern.

He said patients who contacted him were told to see a specialist within six to eight weeks of their cancer diagnosis, compared with the nationally recommended target of four.

“People’s disease progresses, and in some cases, people die before they can be seen by a medical oncologist.”

Her husband Blair, 39, died of bowel cancer in October 2019 after receiving his diagnosis – and in a letter of his own, he was told he would have to wait 12 weeks to see an oncologist, but was given less time to live.

Blair Vining and her daughters Lily and Della-May.
Photograph: Facebook/Blair Vining

The couple dedicated the last 11 months of Blair’s life to improving cancer care for all New Zealanders, organizing a petition for a national cancer charity that garnered 140,000 signatures.

Blair and Melissa also campaigned for a charity hospital to be built in the Southland to improve access to cancer treatment. It was completed at the beginning of this year.

The bricks were purchased to support the Southland Charity Hospital.
Photograph: Provided / Facebook

But Vining said local people should not have to rely on building their own charity hospitals to receive care.

And five years into Melissa’s, she describes waiting times nearly doubling as “heartbreaking”; this is a healthcare system failure that once again affects him personally.

“My father is a very lucky cancer survivor, so he had colorectal cancer, but it was diagnosed early, he received treatment, and he made a full recovery.”

But now, follow-up colonoscopies are nine months overdue; This is vital to monitor and catch the disease in the early stages if it reoccurs.

His brother had also previously had surgery to remove polyps, a cluster of cells that can turn into cancer.

But the “scary” thing, Melissa said, is that her brother also showed signs of colorectal cancer but was 18 months overdue for a screening.

“He’s on the symptomatic list… (but) they don’t know when they’ll be able to see him, mainly because of capacity.

“The months continue to pass. It’s scary to think we might lose another family member or two.

“My brother has two children. This is absolutely unfair.”

Melissa Vining during the construction of the Southland Charity Hospital.
Photograph: RNZ/Tess Brunton

He said both of the patients were good friends of his, but although both could be seen by a private specialist, this solution was out of reach for most.

“And for all the families in (Southland) and Otago who are experiencing these long waits and not getting diagnosis or treatment in time, it’s heartbreaking, it’s just wrong.

“No one should die from colorectal cancer in New Zealand. It is completely treatable.”

In April last year, Health and Disability Commissioner Morag McDowell He published a very critical reportIt found cancer patients in Otago and Southland were being told they would have to wait longer than they would live to see a cancer specialist.

This was followed by a report published in February this year.

In the report, doctors stated that, far from improving, the situation in some departments had worsened.

A radiation oncologist, identified only as “Dr E”, told the commission the department was “too understaffed” by senior doctors and the service was “more at risk now than when the (original) report was written”.

As a result, patient outcomes were “potentially compromised.”

a series suggestions were made in the report, but Melissa said the issue was about financing.

He said what frustrated him most was the government’s “clear lack of responsibility” for the current crisis.

“The Health and Disability Commissioner can only make recommendations to the healthcare provider… but if (Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora) resources become scarce, who will hold the government accountable?

“Who will hold these politicians accountable when they don’t provide the appropriate amount of resources?

“We all pay taxes and it shouldn’t matter where you live. It shouldn’t matter whether you have money or not. We should all have access to a proper standard of basic medical care.”

“This needs to be resolved so that good people don’t die unnecessarily.”

Craig Ashton, Health New Zealand’s acting southern group operations manager, said in a statement that “while we strive to ensure we can offer appropriate specialist appointments within recommended timeframes, sometimes the demand for the service exceeds our ability.”

Ashton said this was due to staff vacancies and a recent upgrade to the endoscopy room at Southland Hospital.

“We have offered some patients appointments on weekends, at a private facility or in Dunedin.

“We remain intensely focused on recruiting and retaining our specialist workforce and continue to strengthen our clinical governance quality and performance through a range of new initiatives.”

He noted that the National Bowel Screening Program has tested 118,000 people across the region and successfully detected 377 cases of bowel cancer since it started in 2017.

He said some patients undergoing surveillance colonoscopies were waiting longer than recommended time frames due to staffing shortages and a new facility upgrade to the endoscopy room at Southland Hospital, which was completed in August and September.

“We remain intensely focused on recruiting and retaining our specialist workforce and continue to strengthen our clinical governance quality and performance through a range of new initiatives.”

Sign up for the daily newsletter Ngā Pitopito Kōrero Curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.