CHRIS SKELTON/Stuff
Senior academics and clinicians including Phil Bagshaw, above, have been negotiating with ministers and the Ministry of Health for years on unmet healthcare needs. But they say they’ve had little back but silence. (File photo)
Leading doctors have written an open letter to Health Minister Ayesha Verrall out of frustration at feeling they have got “absolutely nowhere” in their calls for action on measuring secondary healthcare.
The group, including senior academics and clinicians, have contacted Verrall in recent months over their concerns about unmet secondary elective health need (USEHN), asking for action on the issue and for a meeting to discuss a way forward.
But they have instead received “unhelpful responses or silence” from her office, Canterbury Charity Hospital founder Phil Bagshaw said.
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger has also written to the minister with his concerns about health provision.
READ MORE:
* Surgery for broken leg cancelled at last minute five times in eight days
* Five Canterbury cancer surgeries cancelled amid ‘critical’ staff shortages
* Leading surgeon calls on prime minister to intervene over Christchurch surgery crisis
Unmet secondary elective healthcare need – non-urgent hospital treatment – has never been appropriately measured by the government or the Ministry of Health, Bagshaw said.
The unmet need for primary (GP) healthcare is measured each year as part of the New Zealand Health Survey, but unmet secondary elective healthcare need is not.
“The success of any health system is determined by whether it meets the needs of the population it serves,” Bagshaw said.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF
Surgeon Frank Frizelle has criticised a “lack of adequate forward planning” by the Government for the cancellation of elective cancer surgeries at Christchurch Hospital. (First published June 4, 2021)
The group of senior academics and clinicians have been negotiating with health ministers and the Ministry of Health since 2017 to include effective USEHN measures in the national health survey, but feel they have been ignored.
They tried to help with the design and planning for the addition to the survey but their attempts “proved fruitless”.
“We couldn’t engage with them. They asked their own questions in the survey, questions which very few people would even understand.
“In the end they told us they were the experts, and we weren’t.”
Bagshaw said the ministry had deliberately obstructed their efforts.
“The Ministry of Health doesn’t want to measure something that is going to make them look bad,” Bagshaw said.
KAI SCHWOERER/STUFF
Anthony Coulter, 69, is partially paralysed by spinal stenosis. His condition could be relieved with an operation, but he can’t get on the waiting list
In their letter of April 2, the group said: “Referral to specialist care, for diagnosis or management of health conditions, is central to best healthcare practice in all societies and regarded as a cornerstone of healthcare in OECD countries.
“In Aotearoa, over decades of bad policymaking, we have boxed ourselves into a corner where we often do not know who is in need at an individual level, and we have no understanding at all of the full burden of need across our whole population…
“As part of Aotearoa’s healthcare reforms, we need full accounting of unmet secondary elective health need to inform policymaking and to ensure the continued protection of the health of Aotearoa.”
Among the signatories were Bagshaw, University of Otago Emeritus Professor Andrew Hornblow, Otago university associate professor Bridget Robson, and Canterbury Charity Hospital trustee and paediatrician Dame Sue Bagshaw.
Verrall said on Monday she had agreed to meet with the group in the “near future”, but Bagshaw said he had not received an offer of a meeting.
Meanwhile, leading surgeon Frank Frizelle – another signatory to the letter – met Phil Mauger on Monday to discuss New Zealand’s healthcare system.
Frizelle told Mauger about challenges they were facing and shared ideas as to how the city council could help.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Frank Frizelle met with Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger on Monday. (File photo).
“It’s not a Christchurch alone issue, it’s a national issue. It’s around the country. Multiple components of the sector are really in crisis,” Frizelle said.
“Across the whole sector in most regions there are significant staff shortages, impacting on service delivery mostly in elective services but at times impacting in acute services as well.”
Frizelle said Mauger could help by writing to the Government and publicising the council’s support.
The mayor wrote to Verrall on March 27 to raise concerns about the “growing public alarm” in Christchurch about the level of service being provided by Te Whatu Ora, and said he would welcome the chance to meet her to discuss the situation.
“If you will publicly outline the steps you and your officials are taking to resolve these problems, that will help alleviate the concern in our community,” he said.
Mauger said the Ministry of Health had acknowledged his letter and had said it would respond to him.
