A GP has told the Herald her patients are caught in months-long delays to be seen in Auckland City Hospital's gastroenterology clinics. Illustration / Paul Slater
A GP has told the Herald her patients are caught in months-long delays to be seen in Auckland City Hospital's gastroenterology clinics. Illustration / Paul Slater
* New health wait list figures show nearly 80 per cent of people waiting to be seen by one specialty area are waiting longer than the target timeframe deemed clinically appropriate.
* A GP has contacted the Herald about the delays, saying the lack of communication about when apatient will actually be seen is dangerous.
* Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has made changes at the top of Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora, and pointed to some bright spots in the effort to turn around workforce shortages.
People with serious symptoms are waiting months to be seen by Auckland City Hospital services, after initially being told they’ll be assessed within six weeks.
New figures obtained by the Herald reveal nearly 80 per cent of people waiting to be seen by Te Toka Tumai Auckland (formerly the Auckland District Health Board) gastroenterology clinics are overdue, with many waiting more than double the target timeframe deemed clinically appropriate.
Hospital leaders have apologised for the distressing delays, saying staff vacancies, leave and growing demand have taken a toll.
A GP has contacted the Herald to publicise the situation, saying there’s a lack of communication and honesty about how long people will wait.
Patients referred to be seen in the gastroenterology clinic are prioritised. Priority 1 patients are suspected of having cancer, and should be seen within 14 days.
Priority 2 patients should be seen within six weeks.
The GP, who asked not to be named, said some of her “priority 2″ patients had waited more than three months.
One had a symptom the GP said might indicate cancer. They weren’t made priority 1, she said, because there wasn’t greater evidence of disease, such as a lump or mass.
Gastroenterology covers diseases of the oesophagus, stomach, bowel, liver, gallbladder and pancreas. Common tests include colonoscopies and endoscopies. In Auckland, outpatient clinics are usually run at Greenlane Clinical Centre.
“We don’t know what the real wait time is. They are told six weeks, but it’s been much longer, and will be much longer than that … they’re left in this kind of limbo,” the GP said.
“If the hospital was up front with us, saying, ‘It’s going to be 10 months’, we could make some decisions. I can live with that. But without that information, then you just wait endlessly.”
For instance, a person might want to use what little money they have saved to go private, the GP said.
Many patients caught in delays have not been assessed by hospital staff, which meant responsibility for their health rested on their GP, she said.
Her patient has been changed to priority 1, after she repeatedly updated the hospital about their worsening condition, and phoned doctors working there and the booking clerk.
Other overworked GPs might be too busy to make that effort, she said, and the delays risked patients slipping through the cracks, particularly those not in a position to be a “squeaky wheel” and advocate for themselves.
Hospitals are struggling with growing demand and workforce shortages. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Auckland’s latest gastroenterology clinic waitlist figures show priority 1 patients were waiting an average of almost 34 days to be seen (against a target of 14 days).
Priority 2 patients were waiting an average of almost 137 days, against a target of 42 days. Of that group, 776 out of 951 (82 per cent) had waited longer than six weeks.
Kerry Benson-Cooper, the director of adult medical for Health NZ Te Toka Tumai Auckland, said staff vacancies, leave and growing demand had caused delays.
A gastroenterology fellow and a gastroenterologist will fill vacant positions from September, she said, and scheduling was being improved to reduce missed appointments.
“All patients with a suspicion of cancer are treated as urgent P1 cases and seen by our clinical teams as quickly as possible. Unfortunately patients who need routine care are waiting longer than we, they, or their whānau would like for a clinic referral.
“While we carefully and regularly review our waiting lists and prioritise patients according to clinical need, we know that waiting longer than usual for a non-urgent clinical referral may be distressing for some patients and whānau and we apologise for this.
“We want to acknowledge our gastroenterology staff who are doing everything they can for the patients they care for, without compromising the quality of care of the service.”
Benson-Cooper said communication with GPs would be improved, including by a hospital-wide patient administration system, launching later this year and including a centralised mail service.
“The new system will help us provide up-to-date wait times for referrals appointments, to give our patients, and their GPs, more certainty over timing.”
The delays are not unique to gastroenterology or Auckland. Nationally, wait times in many specialties are near or at record lengths, as short-staffed hospitals struggle with growing demand, partly fuelled by an ageing population.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti yesterday announced Professor Lester Levy as the new chairman of the board of Health NZ, saying it was a step towards improving services.
There were bright spots in workforce recruitment, Reti said, including in nursing. However, “we know there’s still work to do in mental health, midwifery and intensive care, and there are also needs in primary and community care”.
