Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
A father whose teenage son has cancer says the scheme to help them travel to get treatment does not come close to covering his family's costs.
A shortage of cancer doctors has meant some patients have had to travel vast distances to see a specialist, and the cancer society said the National Travel Assistance scheme was not keeping up with rising costs.
It was about a year ago that Justin Robertson's 18-year-old son Tae was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
The Robertson family are from Dargaville, a small town a couple of hours north of Auckland.
Much of the treatment Tae needed was not available in nearby Whangārei, and he was away for treatment for weeks at a time - so his family took it in turns to make the 170 kilometre journey to stay with him.
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They were fortunate to be able to afford this, but for many it would have meant difficult choices, Robertson said.
"I know if it had of happened to us 20 years ago, we wouldn't have been able to afford to do it. So we would have literally been choosing between food for our other children or coming down here ... that's the decision some people have to make."
People who were referred for cancer treatment in another part of the country could get reimbursed for some of their costs, like fuel and accommodation through the National Travel assistance scheme.
It paid 20 cents per kilometre for fuel, and $100 per night for accommodation in Auckland.
It covered the initial cost of travelling for the treatment, but not that of the family who travelled to stay with him in one week shifts.
The scheme did not even come close to covering all the family's costs, Robertson said.
"The main one's obviously fuel and that for travel. Then there's obviously the food, and the parking and other extra costs you have from running two families basically, one in Auckland, one at home."
Tae had been staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Auckland so the family had not had to pay for accommodation.
But Robertson said it was a failure of the system that they had to rely on charity when cancer treatment was supposed to be free in New Zealand.
"The cost of living's got worse and worse, but this has never got updated for years and years."
Tae said he had been missing home.
"Missing my dogs, missing my nephews, just missing actually being by myself and alone. Can't really do that here. Just not that fun."
Cancer Society chief executive Rachael Hart said people across the country had had to travel for treatment due to a shortage of specialist doctors.
A report by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists stated the number of radiation oncology trainees needed to be doubled to fill the shortages.
The problem was at its worst in the South Island, Hart said, with many in the Otago and Southland region travelling to Christchurch for treatment, and some going as far as Wellington or Waikato.
Families would generally be away from home for six to seven weeks for a round of treatment, Hart said.
The National Travel assistance scheme desperately needed to be updated, she said.
"So the funding levels ... need to be addressed, they need to be brought up to be more realistic ... at the moment, people can only claim them after they've already had the expenses, and at a time when families are under extreme financial strain, this just isn't possible."
The shortage of radiation oncologists meant that more and more people would have to travel in the future, Hart said.
"If we're expecting that people are going to have to travel more, then this policy becomes really central to enabling that to happen."
As we approach the general election, Justin Robertson hoped that reforming the National Travel Assistance scheme would become a priority for the next government, but he was not holding out hope.
"I mean there's just so many places which we're falling apart at the seams now ... we seem to have lost sight of a lot of things along the way, we really have."
Te Whatu Ora spokesperson Rachel Haggerty admitted there were issues around equity and access with the National Travel Assistance Scheme.
More than 33,000 patients have used the scheme and demand was increasing, she said.
Te Whatu Ora and the Māori Health Authority were working to redesign the scheme and aimed to make changes to it next year.
Meanwhile, Te Whatu Ora's chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan said radiation oncologists were being actively recruited to fill the shortages in the Southern region.