Givealittle<\/a> page.<\/p>\nHer wait is unfolding despite recent Government funding aimed at decreasing transplant delays nationwide.<\/p>\n
Government funding<\/p>\n
Last year, the Government announced a $27.1 million investment in stem cell transplant services to help patients \u201caccess life-saving treatments without delay\u201d, the release said at the time. <\/p>\n
The funding, across three years, would \u201cstrengthen the workforce, expand hospital capacity, and upgrade infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n
This included employing 79 new fulltime staff. <\/p>\n
Auckland and Wellington Hospitals would increase inpatient bed space, with eight new beds focused on Auckland\u2019s oncology\/haematology patients.<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand clinical executive national director Richard Sullivan said an initial $6.11 million annual boost was implemented last year.<\/p>\n
The investment allowed for 21 new fulltime staff to be employed in Christchurch and 26 in Auckland, and around five more expected in May.<\/p>\n
Transplant woes<\/p>\n
Sullivan said last year, 125 allogeneic transplants (using a donor) were completed. This was up from 114 in 2024.<\/p>\n
In 2027 and 2028, the Government\u2019s investment aimed to increase the number of allogeneic transplants to 160.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Geddes is still awaiting a transplant, which she describes as the \u201cdifference between life and death\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sullivan said only Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington hospitals were currently equipped to deliver allogeneic transplants.<\/p>\n
Waikato and Palmerston North hospitals could perform transplants using a patient\u2019s own stem cells. <\/p>\n
![\"Health]()
Health New Zealand clinical executive national director Dr Richard Sullivan. Photo \/ RNZ, Calvin Samuel<\/p>\n
While Geddes believed the Government\u2019s investment was positive, she said it would only help patients in the long term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have no solutions for people like me,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a case of, \u2018We\u2019ve received funding and our plans are to improve wait times\u2019, … but what are you going to do to help people like myself now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since December, 110 patients nationwide are waiting for an allogeneic stem cell transplant – 69 of them, including Geddes, in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Sullivan said Geddes\u2019 treatment delay was the \u201cresult of nationwide capacity constraints for stem cell transplants\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the new funding will reduce the waitlist over the longer term, we recognise this doesn\u2019t help Loran right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sullivan said transplants were prioritised based on clinical need and length of time, although patients waiting the longest usually were treated first. <\/p>\n
He said Geddes was scheduled to get her transplant \u201cno later\u201d than mid-August.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the Auckland team will continue to look for opportunities to bring this forward,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
The Waikato Herald also approached Health Minister Simeon Brown for comment.<\/p>\n
In response to questions, a spokesperson for the minister said ensuring patients needing stem cell transplants can access this life-saving treatment was a \u201ckey priority\u201d for the minister.<\/p>\n
Brown expected Health New Zealand to continue prioritising this work as part of the investment. <\/p>\n
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was a busy working mum with two kids, normally with one attached to me at some point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42772,534,682,4250,2534,3033,189527,5657,9947,797,8532,28164,42,78,88183,2190,49154,2721,43,2850,81020,49464,2838,22718,40,38,41,39,1524,6923,102,1354,4741],"class_list":["post-359127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aggressive","tag-amid","tag-being","tag-blood","tag-cancer","tag-cell","tag-checkup","tag-chest","tag-delay","tag-diagnosed","tag-ended","tag-fears","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-leukaemia","tag-long","tag-meant","tag-mum","tag-news","tag-pain","tag-relapse","tag-remission","tag-routine","tag-stem","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waikato","tag-what","tag-with","tag-woman","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}