Nicola Coom: Cancer Society CEO on the funding and expanding of cancer infusion treatment

The Cancer Society says widening access to cancer infusion treatment is a win for rural communities.   

The Health Minister announced $210 million from Budget 2024 will go into 14 new sites and expanding 14 existing ones.  

Small towns including Dargaville and Te Kuiti will get new facilities by 2028.  

Cancer Society Chief Executive Nicola Coom told Ryan Bridge that with the price of fuel at the moment, anything that reduces travel time is a win.  

She says it puts treatment closer to rural communities, which then frees up critical capacity in major tertiary hospitals. 

“A win for families, a win for our communities, and definitely a win for the system overall.” 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
More cancer infusions happening in more places. We're getting fourteen
new centers, fourteen upgraded centers, thirteen thousand extra infusions. A. Yeah,
this is all good stuff. That's a twelve percent increase
backed by two hundred and ten million dollars in funding
that set aside in the budget. Nicola Comb, chief executive
at Cancer Society, with me this morning. Nicola, good morning,
Good morning, Ryan. You're welcoming this. I'm assuming good news.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Absolutely. Yeah, this is an announcement that means that cancer
patients can access their treatment faster and much closer to home.
So yeah, we're certainly welcoming this. It's a step towards
rolling out those new medicines that the government government announced
back back in twenty twenty four. So without this new
new infrastructure and in clinical capacity, those medicines wouldn't get

(00:48):
to those patients. So this is a good step. It
reduces travel time for these families, and in today's environment
where the cost of travel with the extra fuel prices,
that hits really hard. Anything that reduces that travel time
is a win. And it also puts treatments closer to
rural communities, and then it frees up critical capacity in

(01:09):
our major tertiary hospitals so that they can be focusing
on the acute cases. So a win for families, win
for our communities, and definitely a win for the system overall.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Are you saying that we've got a government who bought
new cancer medicines, brought online new cancer medicines and then
actually provides the infrastructures for which to deliver them.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, yes, we are, we are. Look we are. While
we celebrated that investment of six hundred and four million
in new medicines when the last budget was delivered, we
were a little critical at the time and said, look,
it's great to be funding these medicines, but the reality
is there's going to be challenges getting them to patients,

(01:51):
and those challenges is exactly what's been addressed in this
announcement yesterday, which is the infrastructure, so the location in
a place and essentially the cheers for those patients to
sit in to have their infusions, and the workforce to
deliver their infusions. So this gives us the complete package
of rolling those new medicines out.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Is it enough to meet demand because demand is increasing,
isn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh? Absolutely? Is it enough to meet demand? No? Probably not.
The demand is coming at us at pace. And look,
what we'd really love to see is government starting to
look a little upstream, rather than investing in our three
year political cycles, looking at actually, what can we invest

(02:39):
in to prevent cancers in the first place. We know
that one in three cancers are preventable, so we'd like
to see some new investment in the next budget looking
at cancer prevention. But this credit to the government, this
is a good step.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Nikola Cone, Chief Executive Cancer Citing for.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
More from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live news
talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio