More cancer treatments coming to Te Kūiti Hospital

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

More cancer treatments will soon be offered at Te Kūiti Hospital, saving patients a drive to Hamilton.

A new infusion centre at the hospital is expected to launch mid-May, Health NZ said, and will offer treatments including chemotherapy.

The move is part of a nationwide expansion of community infusion services, recently announced by the Government.

The focus is getting people earlier access to cancer treatment and closer to home, Health Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement.

“That means not only funding new medicines, but making sure the health system has the capacity to deliver them.”

The Te Kūiti centre would allow people to be treated in their area, instead of travelling up to Waikato Hospital, a statement from Health NZ director of funding - hospitals Rachel Swain said.

Treatments offered will include cytotoxic chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immune check point inhibitors.

“Implementation will be iterative, starting with lower risk medicines as the team develops its pathways and capability to enable safe provision of medicines to the people we care for.”

Te Kūiti’s centre will be one of 14 new infusion centres, and there will be expansions at another 14 sites, the Government said.

“Once fully implemented, the expansion will deliver 218 more chair-days of treatment space each week,” Brown said in a statement.

“This will allow hundreds more patients to be treated weekly across the country, with each chair typically used by three to five patients per day.”

The nationwide expansion plan is supported by $210m to upgrade facilities, buy equipment, and grow the workforce needed to deliver more treatments - following on from new treatments being funded through Pharmac in Budget 2024.

And in Taupō there has already been an expansion of services.

The chemotherapy clinic went from operating one day a week to two days a week, the Government announced in August.

That led to 39% more cancer treatments being delivered in Taupō in the first half of 2025 than in the same period the year before, Health Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement.

“To meet this demand, specialist nurses travel from Rotorua to deliver chemotherapy in Taupō, saving patients the need to make the trip themselves.

“This service also benefits patients living further afield, with those in places like Tūrangi able to halve their travel time by going to Taupō instead of Rotorua.”

The long-term plan was to expand chemotherapy services at Taupō Hospital to five days a week as demand continued to grow, the statement said.