Why are we waiting?

Local MP says health waiting list ‘treatment’ should not be tolerated.

Taranaki-King Country MP, Shane Ardern says that on a regular basis constituents are ringing his office about being taken off the waiting list or long delays for their surgery.

“It is heartbreaking to hear how long they have been waiting, how the delays are affecting their lives and the fact that they do not know when they will have their surgery or even if it will ever happen,” Mr Ardern told the Courier.

“Worse still these patients are from rural areas and have spent a great deal of time and money travelling back and forth to doctors, specialists and the hospital only to be told it’s not going to happen”.

Mr Ardern says it’s no secret that there is a waiting list crisis. Senior medical specialists describe the waiting list cull as ‘dangerous and risky’.

“And the cull is happening on two waiting lists,” Mr Ardern says. “The first is the waiting list to see a specialist. Imagine your GP sends you to see a specialist. Your GP thinks you’re sick enough to see one. But you don’t even get an appointment. That’s because there aren’t enough specialist appointments available. So you get sent back to your GP. Waikato has sent back 3000. Waikato Health Board has 11,000 on its waiting list to see a specialist for the first time. Nearly 6,000 patients are on the booking list and in total the waiting list is 16,980.”

Mr Ardern says the second waiting list being culled is the one where you have finally seen the specialist and been told you definitely need an operation.

“Despite that and the fact that you meet the points requirement, you may be one of the 10,000 nationwide to be culled from this second list in the past year. This is the cruelest cut of all. These patients have survived the first cull, have been told by a specialist that surgery is needed, and then fall victim to the second cull.

Mr Ardern says culling patients from both lists is a false economy, because many of them will get sicker and then cost even more to treat.

“What this is all about is trying to make the waiting lists look shorter so the Government can claim some pathetic credit,” he says.

The National MP says effective solutions would include using private hospitals to carry out publicly funded procedures, involving health professionals more in decision making and trimming bureaucracy and duplication.

“Our health system should not be about hiding figures. It should be about Government ensuring that our health needs are met. The problem is that it is not the Government paying for this failure, it is you and it is time they were held accountable, not the Health Boards, not the taxpayer, but the Government.”