TOP STORY: Waiting list in crisis

ROGER MORONEY
Hawke's Bay District Health Board is expected to dump 1800 patients from its waiting list today.
Demand for specialist assessment at Hawke's Bay Hospital has exceeded capacity and today the board will consider a plan to refer about 1800 people on the waiting list back to the care of their doctors.
DHB's chief operating officer Ray Lind said the number of people being referred to the outpatients system for specialist assessment had exceeded the board's ability to provide appointments.
The waiting list had swelled to the point where it breached Ministry of Health guidelines which stated no one should wait more than six months for an assessment after a referral from their GP.
In Hawke's Bay there are more than 900 people who have been on the waiting list for specialist assessment for more than six months. Mr Lind said a further 877 were regarded as lower clinical priority and were unlikely to be seen at all.
The "elective services" paper being presented to the board at its meeting this afternoon was to outline what the DHB saw as the only way out of a the dilemma - to refer those waiting back to their GPs.
Mr Lind said the board had a responsibility to ensure people in greatest need received care, but also had a responsibility to tell those who had been referred, and who were unlikely to get an appointment booked, of the situation.
He said if the board went ahead today and approved the proposal, plans would be put in place to keep the public informed on what would be happening.
News of the DHB's proposal did not go down well with Tukituki MP Craig Foss who described what had transpired as "unacceptable".
"The resolution, if carried, will mean more pain for more people for longer."
He said the DHB had "serious questions to answer" as it had similar problems nearly three years ago.
"Does the DHB have systems in place to manage waiting lists, and why should anyone who is placed on the waiting list have any faith at all in the process?"
Napier MP Chris Tremain was equally critical.
"Where is the HBDHB at in terms of population-based funding? The HBDHB was $18 million short in 2002. It's no wonder Hawke's Bay has the worst health statistics in the country. The Government must provide transparency on this important issue," he said.
The state of the waiting game was described as a "wake-up call" to people that the days of assuming the free health system could look after them were over, said Royston Hospital manager Andrew Blair.
"I applaud the DHB for its honesty it telling the public it is having trouble delivering," Mr Blair said.
"But there's a clear message here that people have to take greater personal responsibility for their health through insurance."
He said the stress of having to wait for an assessment for specialist care or elective surgery often made the patient's health problems worse.
Mr Clarke said today he expected the board to "reluctantly" decide cutting the lists was the right thing to do. He said patients had been told seeing a specialist within six months was impossible.