I was contacted by an Auckland general practitioner last night regarding what's actually happening in clinics at the moment, compared to what the Government says is happening.
And hasn't this been the theme of the Covid response? The giant disconnect between what we are told is happening, versus what'sactually happening on the front line.
Some of the things we are hearing from the ministers is, in the words of this GP, "BS".
Over the past few days we have been told - at these sole sources of truth, the 1pm briefings - that the labs are turning tests around fast. That they're happy with the pace of Covid test results, that's it all under control. That they can turn tests around in 48 hours.
In reality, not the case.
General practitioners were in fact notified via email from the three Auckland district health boards yesterday, that it can take up to five days for notification of results.
Five days. Not 48 hours.
These swabbing delays are having a huge impact on essential services, given people are in isolation until their swab comes back.
We're also hearing from listeners of waiting five days or more for test results - in limbo all that time, unable to go anywhere and, for essential workers, unable to work.
One nurse at a GP practice, an essential worker, claimed to have waited more than a week for her results. She was then told her swab had been lost and she needed to re-test, and start the waiting game all over again.
The other issue general practitioners are concerned about is why both GPs and CBACS - those community based testing centres - are expected to swab international aircrew within 48 hours of their return, and are therefore being inundated with aircrew testing. GPs believe this should be an Air NZ employment issue, and a service Air NZ provides its staff, as opposed to overloading GPs and CBACS.
Many of these general practices are already operating at capacity and we hear constantly from people saying they've been turned away from testing, so it would seem an obvious solution to help spread the load.*
Kate Hawkesby. Photo / Michael Craig
On top of that, GPs say the pressure to swab all these aircrew - alongside the general public - puts members of the public at risk as well as their medical staff.
Medical staff also want to know what the Government's plans are for swabbing or screening healthcare workers in the community and hospitals, given their concern they are likely to be the next most obvious high-risk category after border staff.
Still, many questions remain unanswered.
And still, statements are being made from the "podium of truth" which don't quite match reality.
*The Herald invited Air New Zealand to respond to this column. In a statement, the airline's chief medical officer Dr Ben Johnston said: "The testing requirement for crew is imposed by the Ministry of Health and we are happy to adhere to this. Air New Zealand has worked hard to provide an in-house service in Auckland and intends to extend this to Christchurch. Crew who live in Auckland are able to access the in-house service however, some may wish to access health services elsewhere. We are in close contact with the district health board and have been advised that they are well resourced to assist with crew testing."
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