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The Cancer Society has raised concerns about system pressures, as it prepares for the rollout of new drugs.
In June the government announced Pharmac would be receiving an additional $604 million to fund up to 52 new medicines.
It included the 13 cancer drugs promised at the election and Pharmac estimated around 175,000 people will benefit in the first year.
They will begin rolling out in October/November.
Cancer Society co-medical director Dr Kate Gregory is concerned the sector is ill-resourced.
"At a lot of centre's, including my own, it's actually chair space, it is actually physically fitting people into treatment.
"Even at the present time, we are struggling, and I know we wouldn't be the only ones around the country.
"And so introducing these new drugs without any investment or thought into the infrastructure, is a huge issue," Gregory said.
The sector was already short-staffed and trained staff were needed to administer the new drugs, she said.
"It's a limited resource at the moment but it is also physical space, you know, a lot of these units have evolved over time. For example our unit, we have limited space, and it is full at the moment in terms of the number of chairs that we can fit in."
Dr Gregory said it could become a huge issue without more investment in chairs and infrastructure.
She feared the inadequate resourcing would also have an impact on the wider health sector.
"With these new cancer drugs it's not just the doctors and nurses, it's also pathology services.
"Often these new treatments need extra tests to be done on the tumor to see which drug might be most applicable for the patient, and that's putting an extra pressure on pathology services - and those are the doctors and technicians who cut up tumors and look at them under the microscope, do special tests to define a bit more about what treatments might be useful."
A spokesperson for the office of the minister of health Dr Shane Reti said: "Health New Zealand was allocated $38 million for the 2024/25 financial year to support them to deliver these additional cancer treatments.
"The minister has been advised by Health New Zealand that they are working closely with all relevant agencies to ensure the timely and effective delivery of new and expanded cancer treatments, enabled by the recent funding boost for Pharmac.
"This includes planning how Health New Zealand will work across all oncology services to support implementation and ensuring patients are able to receive the extended service.
"The minister understands that Health New Zealand is looking at a range of initiatives to facilitate the delivery of these new cancer drugs, including providing more services closer to people's homes and better utilising capability across health practitioner groups to support the workforce capacity increase required."
