The National Child Cancer Network brings together health professionals, carers and stakeholder organisations to work collaboratively and provide leadership for service development across child cancer services in New Zealand.
The patient’s experience is central to our work. We seek to reflect the needs and preferences of children and families in all of our work and place particular emphasis on ensuring children receive the same quality of care regardless of whom they are or where they live in New Zealand.
The Network creates awareness of linkages between individuals and service providers, identifying opportunities to share information, knowledge and best practice across the country.
One of our strengths is our ability to stimulate creativity and innovation by providing opportunities and forums for people from different disciplines, organisations and parts of the country, to interact and exchange ideas.
We focus on the total care environment from ‘clinical trial to taxi chit’, considering issues relating to the provision of medical, nursing, psychosocial and allied health services as well as patient and extended family support.
The Network supports a series of working groups, involving a diverse range of health and voluntary sector professionals. They provide advice, recommendations and action plans on specific areas of service delivery. Some current examples include groups that focus on Late Effects (survivorship) and Psychosocial Support for patients and their families and whānau.
Wherever possible, the Network seeks to implement consistent approaches to service delivery through the introduction of quality assurance activities, evidence-based practice, prioritisation rules, clinical pathways, referral guidelines and treatment protocols.
The National Child Cancer Network is funded by Te Aho o Te Kahu (Cancer Control Agency) with active participation and support from its lead advisers. It is a key initiative of the National Plan for Child Cancer Services in New Zealand (2010), developed by the Ministry of Health and (then) National Health Board, to provide a national framework for the delivery of child cancer services. The Network’s activity is also an integral part of the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan 2019-2029.
