A University of Otago study has uncovered that at least 85,000 New Zealanders are denied specialist care annually, with some dying as a result.
The study, which utilised nationwide data from Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora and interviews with 43 general practitioners (GPs), highlighted the increasing difficulty in accessing specialist doctors.
One GP recounted managing a heart patient “into the grave” due to the inability to secure necessary specialist care, while another expressed fear over treating teenagers with severe mental health issues who couldn’t get psychiatric appointments.
The study found a rising trend in patients being declined care, jumping from 11.4% in 2018 to 14.2% recently, a situation described by health systems professor Robin Gauld as a “national scandal.”
The study also highlighted the regional disparities and gender differences in access to specialist care, with the former Southern DHB declining 54% of referrals in 2022.
Patients unable to see specialists often had to rely on frequent GP visits and strong medications, significantly impacting their quality of life.
Many doctors reported feeling “moral injury” from not being able to provide necessary care.
Gauld called for urgent action and additional funding to address the crisis, praising recent initiatives allowing GPs to refer patients directly for diagnostic scans but emphasizing the need for more comprehensive solutions. Responding to the study via state media, Health NZ acknowledged the pressures faced by GPs and committed to working closely with general practices to address these challenges.
Image credit: Arseny Togulev
Maybe firing half your medical force for refusing a dangerous gene therapy is not a great plan
EXACTLY!
And we have still the same heads of the Medusa calling the shots (pun intended) and stalling REAL accountability for the biggest crime EVER committed in New Zealand, the very people responsible for the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.
IT’S TIME TO DECLARE A NATIONAL HEALTH EMERGENCY DUE TO THE LACK OF CARE, LACK OF DOCTORS, NURSES AND SPECIALISTS, AND THE LACK OF FUNDING!
How do you deal with such a scenario?
ACTIVATE THE MEDICAL CORPS OF THE ARMY, NAVY AND AIR FORCE, AND HAVE THEM COME INTO THE HOSPITALS THREE (3) DAYS A WEEK TO CLEAR THE BACK-LOG OF PATIENTS ON THE WAITING LIST FOR MINOR AND NEEDED ELECTIVE SURGERIES!
This then frees-up the Surgeons to do major surgeries for those patients awaiting the same.
This way, the NZDF get extra training in TRIAGE, and if Hospital space is lacking, then they can set-up tents on the grounds of the Hospitals.
With World War Three now here, it’s essential that the Medical Corps get the extra training and experience in clearing the back-log of patients awaiting surgeries.
With looming shortages of medical sundries now looming due to war, now is the time to do the above before severe shortages run out!
CHECK YOUR FIRST-AID KITS, AND STOCK UP ON GAUZE, ETC. AND BE READY TO BRING YOUR FIRST-AID KITS TO THE SURGERIES WHEN THE SHORTAGES HIT!
Brilliant, but seemingly too complicated for the gang calling the shots.
Actually, we have a political emergency. The people’s mandate has been usurped. We need a citizens guard and citizens arrests.
The Labour and Nat creeps gleefully dole out money to the military industrial complex but fail miserably when it comes to the welfare of their countrymen and women….
We are subsidising US imperialism at a high cost…..
Maybe laying the foundation for slowly admitting that excess deaths are happening, but, look over here at our lack of specialist referrals, not over there at the pfizer/moderna jabs.
Release the data, jabbed versus unjabbed all cause mortality you snakes!
What an absolute disgrace! Health is no longer about saving lives..just patching up, at best.
If Health New Zealand is going to support the GP’s then they need to up the training and increase the ability for the GP’s to appropriately test, diagnose and treat patients. Yeah right!
Health New Zealand has become a ‘lost cause’…the definition being “a person or thing that is certain to fail”.