Transcript
JANE SKEEN: So what we've been doing is working with those countries, working with the health professionals, initially bringing in some of them to New Zealand, particularly some of the nurses, and then with annual visits, we've derived some protocols which are less intensive than what we give in New Zealand and the idea is that with some of these cancers, treat them and then we can increase the intensity of the protocols and the idea is to see increased survival rates improving and more cancers being treated.
SARA VUI-TALITU: Can you give me an idea of your collaborative efforts in the Pacific?
JS: Fiji they should see about 50 kids a year and they're twinning with our colleagues in Christchurch and most of the children will be treated in country in either Suva or Lautoka. And with Tonga and Samoa, they see around 10 patients each for each country, 10 patients a year, and so that model, well they haven't got enough to treat them all in country and so they come down to Starship for the first six to eight weeks or maybe a bit longer, to have the first part of the intensive Pacific protocol and then go back and have the rest of their chemotherapy there.
SV: Any children in New Zealand at the moment?
JS: We're seeing a little boy from Tonga at present and he'll go back, he's been down here for about four weeks, he'll go back in two to three weeks and we know that with all the training we have done and when we visit and train with the nurses and doctors each time we visit, we know that that chemotherapy will be delivered as they are doing very well in Tonga. And all these things we have done like protocols and a plan, it's not just us in New Zealand but it's in collaboration with our Pacific colleagues and so dealing with their Ministry of Health representatives, to the clinicians, and then in Tonga and Samoa and Fiji. There are some parent support organisations who have got different resources but that are able to connect with the families. So we know that is important as we need the patients to be able to get to the hospital for treatment and to make sure they take the drugs and then the child is well cared for in a warm environment with food and so that is why parent support's important.
SV: Any other considerations?
JS: Oh the other issue that has come up is detecting the cancers early and so we talk about the early warning signs of cancer and so these have been used initially, well they came out of South Africa, but they have been translated into Hindi, Fijian, Samoan and Tongan and so this is to get out into the community that a) children do get cancer and b) not all children with cancer have to die. Try and get early presentation and once they present to a health professional, whether it be the village clinic, they then get referred on to the hospital and so there has been a little bit of training going around that in terms of community awareness.
