Is cancer treatment getting faster?
87.0% received cancer treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat, up from 86.3% a year earlier (Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Jun 2026 qtr).
Updated
Results for the five government health targets in the April–June quarter of each year for the last decade: faster cancer treatment, childhood immunisation, emergency department stays under six hours, first specialist assessment within four months, and elective treatment within four months.
One quarter per year (April–June), so seasonal effects are held constant but within-year changes are not shown. Childhood immunisation figures changed source in 2021/22 (National Immunisation Register to the Aotearoa Immunisation Register), which counts more eligible children; the drop partly reflects that.
A percentage meeting a health target describes the group covered by that target. Its definition tells you which patients are counted and when their waiting clock starts and ends.
Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in cancer care describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.
Faster cancer treatment: % treated within 31 days of the decision to treat was 86.3% in Jun 2025 qtr, a year earlier.
The earliest observation on the same basis was 90.1% in Jun 2017 qtr.
Cancer care: definitions
Results for the five government health targets in the April–June quarter of each year for the last decade: faster cancer treatment, childhood immunisation, emergency department stays under six hours, first specialist assessment within four months, and elective treatment within four months.
- One quarter per year (April–June), so seasonal effects are held constant but within-year changes are not shown.
- Childhood immunisation figures changed source in 2021/22 (National Immunisation Register to the Aotearoa Immunisation Register), which counts more eligible children; the drop partly reflects that.
- COVID-19 disrupted hospital services in 2020–2022; waiting-time results for those years reflect that disruption.
- Point-in-time snapshots as first published; they can differ from other Health NZ statistics.
Show the figures
| Period | Faster cancer treatment: % treated within 31 days of the decision to treat (%) |
|---|---|
| Jun 2026 qtr | 87.0% |
| Jun 2025 qtr | 86.3% |
| Jun 2024 qtr | 84.2% |
| Jun 2023 qtr | 84.2% |
| Jun 2022 qtr | 86.9% |
| Jun 2021 qtr | 86.3% |
| Jun 2020 qtr | 90.2% |
| Jun 2019 qtr | 86.2% |
| Jun 2018 qtr | 88.6% |
| Jun 2017 qtr | 90.1% |
April–June quarter (Q4) of each financial year; one result per year. Source: Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. Lines break at basis changes and missing periods.
Cancer care: questions for your AI
Download the data, attach it in your assistant, then paste the prompt.
The attached CSV is Health targets: cancer treatment, immunisation, ED and waiting times, from Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. Answer: Is cancer treatment getting faster? Name the unit and period. Use only directly supported observations. Definitions: Results for the five government health targets in the April–June quarter of each year for the last decade: faster cancer treatment, childhood immunisation, emergency department stays under six hours, first specialist assessment within four months, and elective treatment within four months. Limits: One quarter per year (April–June), so seasonal effects are held constant but within-year changes are not shown. Childhood immunisation figures changed source in 2021/22 (National Immunisation Register to the Aotearoa Immunisation Register), which counts more eligible children; the drop partly reflects that. COVID-19 disrupted hospital services in 2020–2022; waiting-time results for those years reflect that disruption. Point-in-time snapshots as first published; they can differ from other Health NZ statistics.
More questions about cancer care
Other questions this topic can answer directly.
Cancer care: sources
The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.
- Organisation
- Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Health targets: 10 years of quarter four results
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, health target results, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Figures compiled by NZ in Numbers.
- Reuse limits
- Photographs, illustrations and logos are not covered.
- Snapshot
- data/raw/healthnz-targets/2026-10-10_7c5bf3a1253b.docx
- SHA256
- 7c5bf3a1253be26bf675fce50c192f5b7eacff346910bc859e9aa960200fae3e
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026