Doctors respond to patient assessment delays

Senior doctors are pushing for improved workplace planning and development to try and overcome patient assessment delays which they consider unacceptable.

ACT Party health spokeswoman Heather Roy said yesterday said Health Ministry figures she obtained showed that 118,000 New Zealanders were waiting for their first specialist assessment.

Over 25,000 had been waiting for at least six-months after being referred by their GP.

Mrs Roy said in a statement that Health Minister Annette King, when in opposition in 1998, had pointed out that 96,000 people were awaiting first specialist assessments, and had said it was "criminal".

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said today said the situation was unacceptable in a developed country such as New Zealand.

"Behind each statistic is a patient facing anxiety, stress and in some cases discomfort and pain with the real risk that their health will further deteriorate."

He said the problem was largely due to workforce shortages and the failure of the health system to adequately plan for recruitment and retention of health professionals.

Mr Powell said senior doctors had taken the initiative to address the problem in their new national collective agreement.

District Health Boards were to develop agreed plans with senior doctors for staffing levels and support for professional development and education, along with new recruitment and retention strategies, he said.

The current government had realised that good planning was important, but hadn't got into the "nuts and bolts" of doing it, Mr Powell told NZPA.

He said it would be nice to think there was more direction coming from government, but the initiative should go some way towards ensuring patients received the care and treatment they deserved in a timely manner.

A spokesman for Ms King said today the Government had an objective to get everyone processed within the first six months.

"It (the problem) is certainly being worked on, and the fact is that it's a huge improvement on what existed because people now have certainty."

He said the 96,000 people on the waiting list in 1998 were not receiving first specialist assessment and were simply on a waiting list with no certainty as to when they would be seen -- some waiting up to several years.

About 450,000 people had received first specialist assessment last year.

- NZPA