The Hutt Valley District Health Board is to resume breast reconstruction surgery for hundreds of women.
The board has continued providing reconstructions to women in central New Zealand as the need for mastectomies arose, but stopped providing the operation in 2006 for those who had delayed it for any reason.
It says it lacked operating theatres and surgeons. Now, however, it has opened new temporary theatres and signed a long-term deal with private Boulcott Hospital, which will receive about $500,000 a year to do half the operations.
The board estimates there are several hundred women from Hawke's Bay to Nelson and Marlborough who have been waiting for the surgery. It says it will provide the surgery for 20 women who had been promised it, before beginning the others in July.
Health Minister Tony Ryall has welcomed the decision.
