Policy a death sentence, say surgeons

State policies on the rationing of surgery will kill patients before their time, say a large group of public-sector surgeons.

Seventy-four of the Canterbury District Health Board's 80 surgeons signed a letter condemning the Ministry of Health's policy forcing people off elective surgery waiting lists if they have to wait more than six months.

The letter adds to the Government's growing headache over elective surgery and it now appears to be considering a $60 million injection to help out, although Health Minister Pete Hodgson refuses to confirm or deny this.

The surgeons' letter to their health board was released yesterday by its chief executive, Gordon Davies, alongside his announcement of $1.7 million extra funding for elective surgery and his apology to patients over the way some were referred back to their GPs without an operation, specialist appointment or other procedure.

Thousands of patients nationally, including in Auckland, are being removed from elective surgery or specialists' waiting lists to comply with a ministry crackdown on people waiting longer than six months in each category.

Traditionally hospitals, surgeons and specialists have left some people on lists longer in the hope of fitting them in, but now people with less-serious conditions will be rejected by the hospitals if they cannot be seen in time.

The surgeons' letter says: "Compliance with this [treatment] directive from the Ministry of Health will deny many of our surgical patients the benefits of modern surgery and force them to continue to live with worsening disabilities and in some cases undiagnosed and untreated conditions including tumours that will lead to premature death."

Answering National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor indicated to the House that between 17,000 to 27,000 patients waiting for assessment or treatment would have been sent back to their GPs in the year to the end of this month.

Previously the Government has said 10,000 to 14,000 are sent back each year.

The ministry has set the end of this month as the deadline for compliance with its six-month policy, threatening financial penalties for non-compliance.

This week the Herald revealed the Waitemata health board's plan to dump nearly 800 patients. Some who were promised treatment "may now be declined", a confidential document said, adding the clinical thresholds for acceptance into some services had been raised.

The Auckland board says the number of its patients to be referred back to GPs "has not been finalised".

It has stopped accepting "routine" referrals to services "where demand exceeds funded capacity", but refuses to say which services these are. Its compliance deadline has been extended to the end of the year for ophthalmology.

The ministry website indicates that on June figures the Auckland board needed to reduce the number of patients exceeding the six-month policy by more than 3300, including ophthalmology.

Mr Ryall said, judging by ministry website figures, it was more like 12,000.