Patient queues longer for new hospital building

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

The number of public patients waiting more than the benchmark six months to see a specialist in central Auckland has jumped by about 60 per cent since the city's new hospital opened.

Just before Auckland City Hospital opened last October, 2688 Auckland District Health Board patients had been on the waiting list for a first specialist assessment for more than six months.

By the end of March, the latest reporting period, the figure had risen to 4294.

A maximum wait of six months is the Government's target, as it is for the time patients should wait for elective surgery, for those judged sick enough to qualify, given the money constraints.

About 15 per cent of those offered treatment had waited longer than six months for it.

"We're not doing well," said the board's elective services project manager, Jane Craven.

One reason was the time spent by doctors shuttling between the Grafton hospital and the Greenlane Clinical Centre.

Another was the greater time taken by doctors to use some patients' medical notes and x-rays now that they were computerised rather than paper notes and film pictures.

Some surgeons blame the reduction in hospital bed numbers and a shortage of resources for treatment delays, but the management asserts that there are enough beds and is unsure why orthopaedic delays have worsened despite more money going into theatre availability.

The hospital's general manager, Nigel Murray, said that despite the disruption of shifting most services to the new Grafton and Greenlane buildings, the number of patients treated from July to March was almost the same as in those months last year.