Dear MidCentral District Health Board,

I was recently treated for a bladder tumor assessed at the time to be muscle-invasive; the treatment consisted of a radical transurethral resection of the tumor without concurrent chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Publicly available information indicates that this treatment is nonstandard, and indeed substandard.

In light of the above, would you please provide the number of times during 2016 that your staff treated muscle-invasive bladder tumors in the first instance with radical transurethral resection alone.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Whitehead (ERE6201)

Dear MidCentral District Health Board,

Thank you for your response. I accept your statement.

However please bear in mind that Mr Chrisp assessed my own tumor as muscle-invasive at the time he radically resected it (at the deliberate cost of a perforated bladder wall and a blocked ureter). It was after surgery that low grade, non-invasive cancer was diagnosed.

You also need to note that Mr Chemasle told me he would have done exactly the same as had Mr Chrisp.

I have reproduced your response below.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Whitehead

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Dear Mr Whitehead
Your OIA request of 21st February 2017 is acknowledged and has been passed on to me for response.

You have requested;
. The number of muscle-invasive bladder tumors as a result of Radical Transurethral Resections in 2016 at Palmerston North Hospital.

The response I have received is that NO patients at Palmerston North Hospital were treated in 2016 with Transurethral Resections of Bladder Tumour alone for muscle-invasive disease. As this request is about your treatment we have enclosed a copy of a letter sent to your General Practitioner from Mr Chemasle and this response have addressed your questions.

Yours sincerely
Lyn Horgan
Operations Director
Hospital Services