Big cost factor in bone marrow unit

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 3

Big cost factor in bone marrow unit

PA Gore ■ The benefits of bone marrow transplant surgery had to be weighed against the cost of establishing a national unit, said a New Zealand professor who has just made a four-week study tour of overseas units.

Professor J. E. Pettit, associated professor of haematology at the Otago University Medical School, will report his findings to the Hospital Advisory Council, which will then make recommendatiosn to the .Minister of Health on establishing a national unit.

Professor .Pettit said yesterday that a number of factors would have to be taken into consideration in any recommendation, the most important being the cost of a national unit and the ability to staff it. A bone marrow transplant offered only a,slight benefit over other therapy for leukemia victims, Professor Pettit said.

“When you consider that only one out of five operations is successful, you have

to assess the cost against the benefit,” he said.

He found general enthusiasm for the operation on his tour of overseas units, but said, “The benefits, though, are pretty doubtful.”

"Because of the cost of a unit, there is effectively going to have to be the scrapping of something else. "I would obviously love to have a unit established, but you must realise the cake must be shared. We will probably have to put our case forward with the others and hope it will be considered favourably.”

Professor Pettit described the situation in which Gareth Cotton, aged five, a leukemia victim, of Mataura, must go overseas for bone marrow transplant surgery as “unsatisfactory.” The North Canterbury Hospital Board was prevented from accepting Gareth Cotton, because key medical staff were absent, said the chairman of the board, Mr T. C. Grigg, yesterday.

One was ill in hospital and

another was in the United States studying advanced techniques in bone marrow transplants. The earliest the transplant could have been done was November, he said.

Since the first bone marrow transplant at Christchurch Hospital in April, 1979, there had been nine transplants, and eight of the patients had come from outside the board’s area, said Mr Grigg. Gareth Cotton was going to Sydney for surgery, said the Minister of Health (Mr Malcolm) on Tuesday, because neither the North Canterbury nor Auckland hospital boards could provide the necessary specialists and staff in the. time ' frame needed for the boy’s treatment. The Minister of Social Welfare (Mr Young) has announced a grant of $20,000 to the Cotton family for its visit to Sydney. . . An appeal for additional funds launched by the Mataura Lions Club has reached