Lower North Island women must travel for complex gynaecological cancer care

Monday, 7 July 2025

Women in lower North Island will need to travel to Christchurch for certain cancer surgeries for the next four to five years, with Wellington’s now-retired sole gynaecological oncologist still not replaced.

It will affect more than 100 women with ovarian and some cervical cancers in Wellington, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, Manawatū, Whanganui and Hawke’s Bay.

Critics have described the move as appalling and suggest it could be the start of further health service consolidation.

Capital Coast and Hutt Valley chief medical officer Andre Cromhout confirmed gynaecological oncology surgery for the next four to five years would be performed “mainly in Christchurch and Auckland”.

“Some gynaecological cancer surgery will continue to be delivered in Wellington when a Christchurch-based gynaecological oncologist visits the region monthly. Other services in the treatment pathway for women, such as medical and radiation oncology and specialist nursing support for gynaecological oncology patients will also continue.”

Cromhout said while logistical and financial support was available, it would be a “significant inconvenience to many women and their families who are already distressed”.

Work was under way on the best long-term approach, Cromhout said, but shifting more acute surgeries from Wellington to Christchurch was unlikely to materially affect wait times.

Cancer Society medical director Dr Kate Gregory said it would affect women with ovarian cancer and also some complex cervical and endometrial cancer surgery. Patients would often be in hospital recovery 10 days after these types of procedures, she said.

“It's well established that patients who need these complex surgeries do much better if they're treated by specialist surgeons in centres set up for it. Wellington was one of those centres in New Zealand.

“And I think one of the concerns is that once you lose a service from a centre for a period of time, re-establishing that can be very difficult.”

It would be a huge commitment too for Christchurch “to suddenly absorb all this workload” and to travel to Wellington once a month, Gregory said.

There was a risk it could set a precedent for more consolidation of services around New Zealand, she said.

“It's not just doing the operation, it's the aftercare, it’s the follow up … so you need a certain number of people to be able to service that ‒ and that can be difficult in a country like New Zealand to adequately staff that kind of service.”

Ministry of Health’s Heather Muriwai in an email in February ‒ released to Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall through the Official Information Act ‒ wrote the immediate impacts of just having Auckland and Christchurch operating included competition for theatre space, increased wait times and increased travel for surgery for women and their families.

Verrall said the period before surgery was an incredibly stressful time.

“Wellington is a big city. The Government should be actively working to recruit from overseas a surgeon to fill that spot.

“Cervical cancer, ovarian and endometrial cancers are common cancers of women, and they should be able to be treated in this city, just like other cancers can be.”

Executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Sarah Dalton said even before the last gynae-oncologist left Wellington “there were known issues and a failure to support that service, either locally or nationally”.

Women’s health continued to be very poorly served across the country, she said.

“There is huge demand, unmet need and [health authorities] are continuing to ignore that, as far as we can see, there's certainly very little public investment in terms of workforce that we can see.

“There are a number of services in Wellington that we have real concerns about, the pediatric ICU, radiology services, gynae-oncology, just to name three.”

Dr Sue Fleming, New Zealand vice president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said gynae-oncology was a small workforce and therefore “quite vulnerable”, even with the loss of one or two clinicians.

“The loss of the gynae-oncologist from Wellington has really created a challenge for the whole of New Zealand, not just for Wellington.”

Asking clinicians from Christchurch, which was also a small and vulnerable service, to travel was not the most efficient use of a their time, Fleming said..

A spokesperson for Simeon Brown said it was an operational decision for Health NZ.