West Auckland doctors plead for missing millions

Premature deaths and poor health are the result of a $13m shortfall in health cash for Waitakere, reports MARTIN JOHNSTON

Frontline healthcare in West Auckland is severely underfunded, says a report released yesterday.

The Waitakere Health Plan says the city receives $13 million less Government money than it would if it was financed in line with the national average.

Doctors say Waitakere residents, especially poorer ones, are paying the price in premature deaths and poor health.

They hope the shortfall will be fixed with the Government's plan to adjust regional health funding on "weighted population" criteria that will probably include the socio-economic status and ethnic mix of each area.

The Waitakere plan, an agenda for the development of services, was written by a group representing Waitemata Health, the Waitakere City Council, general practitioners, Maori and Pacific Island healthcare providers, and community and health groups.

It says Waitakere has the least GPs per head of population of all sub-regions in Auckland or Northland.

And under the Health Funding Authority's formula, it states, Waitakere needs a 40 per cent increase to give the city a fair slice of the national cake for primary care, which includes subsidised GP care, drug prescriptions and laboratory tests.

Alan Greenslade, chief executive of the West Auckland GPs' group Integrated Primary Care Services, said Waitakere health clinics received around $29.5 million from the Government for primary care last financial year.

The chairman, Dr Lannes Johnson, said one reason for the city's cash shortfall was that relatively fewer people there visited doctors so there was less Government subsidy money in respect of community services cardholders. Many poor people could not afford to see a doctor, despite the subsidy.

Transport was another problem. Many parents at home with children did not have the use of a car during the day, when it was easier to take children to a doctor.

He said the primary-care shortfall was a big factor in the city's high rates of:

Children's cellulitis, a skin infection that puts many in hospital.

Adults who have heart attacks without previously having sought medical help for a heart condition. Up to half of these attacks were fatal.

The Minister of Health, Annette King, said at the launch of the plan that communities' health needs varied greatly.

"That's why we need a system of weighted funding, based on population needs, in respect of primary healthcare.

"Weighted funding should go a long way to helping ensure that people living in communities like Waitakere receive a level of primary healthcare as fair as the level of care available in areas of less need."

She praised the Waitakere Health Plan, which she said would be a great help to the city's district health board under the new health structure.