The number of New Zealanders overdue for a specialist appointment or treatment/surgery has risen. Photo / 123rf.com
The number of New Zealanders overdue for a specialist appointment or treatment/surgery has risen. Photo / 123rf.com
There are nearly 60,000 New Zealanders overdue for a first appointment with a health specialist.
That’s a 67 per cent increase in 12 months, and health officials admit: “Referrals for first specialist assessments are greater than our capacity to treat.”
A major health union says the ballooningnumber of people waiting beyond the four-month limit to get seen by a specialist is “massive” and “out of control”.
Sarah Dalton, executive director of the doctors and dentists union the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), said the situation was alarming.
“The bottom line is there are a lot of quite sick, quite unwell, disabled people out there with diagnosed, curable conditions that can’t get the care they need.”
The target wait time for people accepted for a first specialist appointment or planned treatment (such as surgery) is no longer than four months.
A Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora report tracking the health system’s performance shows that, as of September 2023, 59,817 people had waited too long for a first specialist appointment.
That compared to 35,863 in September 2022. The overdue numbers have steadily increased by around 1200 extra people every month, since January 2021.
“The number of first specialist assessment appointments increased by 3.27 per cent in the last year,” the report stated.
“The growth in the number of patients waiting for a first specialist assessment reflects that referrals for first specialist assessments are greater than our capacity to treat.”
Specialities with the biggest growth in accepted referrals are cardiology, plastics, haematology and renal medicine.
“Detailed work is underway to identify how Te Whatu Ora can safely and effectively respond to this increasing demand, including balancing the current focus on reducing long waiters against those with clinical need.”
Overdue cases for surgery/treatment also rising
The number of people waiting longer than four months for planned care has also grown, to 29,266 in September 2023 - a 10 per cent increase over 12 months.
“The ratio of people being treated, to those being added, has moved to being greater than 1, since April 2023. This means that more people are being treated than added. This additional effort has gone to long waiting patients to clear the backlog,” Te Whatu Ora stated.
In May 2022 the Labour Government announced a planned care taskforce, to clear overdue wait lists that had grown because Covid restrictions shut down or limited health services.
Progress was made in some areas, including more cooperation between regions and hospitals, and the number of people waiting more than 12 months for a first specialist assessment reduced.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton. Photo: RNZ
However, Dalton said the latest figures showed more action was urgently required.
The country is still short of thousands of health workers, she said, and an increasing number are abandoning the public system for private roles.
At the same time, demand is growing, including because of an ageing population that is sickening with chronic conditions, for which there are better and more modern treatments, that take up resources and keep people alive for longer.
Urgent or acute cases, where care is needed for an illness or injury, were flooding hospitals, Dalton said, leaving little time or space for planned treatments like elective surgeries.
Some people overdue a specialist appointment or treatment would deteriorate, she said.
“There are definitely people dying on waiting lists. Some people might not die from what’s wrong with them, but they might go blind, or become physically unable to work anymore - if it’s a hip or knee issue, for example - and they become crippled with the progression of the condition.
“It’s no joke if you are in chronic pain as a result of a curable condition.”
After taking over as Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced five key priorities, one of which was “shorter wait times for first specialist assessment”. Reti will set targets and has said he will also focus on innovation and the workforce.
