Dr Lester Levy and Matt Doocey delivered speeches to the nib Health Innovators’ Summit, held at the Northern Club in downtown Auckland.
Video / NZ Herald
Exclusive: The commissioner of Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora, Dr Lester Levy, tells the Herald about his concern at record wait times in the health system, and what gives him confidence things can be turned around.
The boss of Health NZ says patients “need and deserve better”, asprogress on treating cancer patients quickly goes backwards.
Key measures of health performance are worsening. They include the proportion of cancer patients who receive their first treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat.
That fell to 81.9% in the third quarter of 2023/24 (January 1 to March 31), from 85.4% in the second quarter.
The official target had been 85%. This was revised to 90% when the National-led Government set out its five targets for the health system to achieve by 2030.
The commissioner of Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora, Dr Lester Levy - who was appointed last month to overhaul the organisation - told the Herald that wait times across the health system were his key focus.
“I am highly centred on the patient - that is everything to me - and we will do whatever we have to, to fix this for them. Because I don’t like the position that they are in at the moment. I feel really uncomfortable about that. They need and deserve better.”
Health NZ says the faster cancer treatment measure was affected by a period that included the holidays, and early indications are things have improved. Photo / 123rf.com
Asked about the cancer treatment percentage, Levy said officials were trying to get to the bottom of what was happening, and how things could be turned around.
They include Dr Richard Sullivan, Health NZ’s chief clinical officer and medical oncologist.
“Health NZ acknowledges the challenging situation some people may be facing with delays in treatment. However, patients who are needing urgent cancer treatment can be reassured that they are our highest priority,” Sullivan said.
“Most urgent surgery occurs within four weeks from decision to treat, and some patients based on clinical priority will be seen well before this.”
The proportion of eligible cancer patients who receive their first treatment within 31 days of a health professional's decision to treat. Source: Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora Quarterly Performance Report
The data reflected an expected reduction in care over the holidays, he said, and early indications were of an improvement in the following period, from April to June.
“Addressing challenges and constraints across the cancer pathway is a focus for Health NZ.
Recruitment and retention remain key to this, particularly given the growth in demand for cancer services,” Sullivan said.
“We have focused programmes of work under way, including international recruitment for radiation oncologists and additional places for radiation oncology training, to address and support this demand.”
Health NZ is working with primary care to improve cancer diagnosis, he said, and is strengthening national screening programmes and extending treatment access.
A national clinical network is being established to “eliminate variation in access, quality, and outcomes for patients”, and better tracking of data will show what areas need more resources.
He has been tasked with finding $1.4 billion in savings while also improving services and meeting the Government’s national health targets, including around faster cancer treatment.
Since April, Health NZ has placed restrictions on recruitment. It has denied a hiring freeze, but this week a Health NZ staff member presented information to a senior leadership meeting that outlined a potential reduction of thousands of staff, including 1491 nurses and 470 specialists.
That caused Levy and Deputy Commissioners Ken Whelan and Roger Jarrold to on Tuesday email health workers, saying “what was presented is in direct conflict with our thinking and should be dismissed”, and promising “the clinical frontline will not be cut or reduced, and our plans are to strengthen it.”
In a speech to a health conference in Auckland on Wednesday Levy said reducing treatment delays was his main priority and motivation for taking on the job.
He said there were currently about 170,000 people waiting more than four months for a first specialist appointment, and another 65,000 are overdue for planned care like elective surgeries.
Bringing such wait lists down wouldn’t be easy, Levy told his audience: “We will try and move as quickly as we can. You know the cliche, ‘This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon’? Well, for us I’m afraid this is a sprint and not a marathon. We don’t have time.”
After the speech, Levy told the Herald he couldn’t yet give a timeframe or estimate for when the overdue backlogs would be cleared.
However, he said he was reassured by his past work overseeing hospital systems, including when gynaecology delays were cleared at Auckland Hospital, and drastically improving wait times in the North Shore Hospital emergency department.
Such improvements happened with largely the same workforce, he said.
“A lot of this has been done before. That is what gives me a lot more confidence…this is all possible. But the speed at which it happens, I’ll have to come back to you on that.
“It would be nice if we didn’t have the financial problem, that would have made the landscape quite a lot different. But we have to deal with that, and not make that the main show in town, because that will just distract us.”
