New Zealanders will soon know more about the state of the country's hospital waiting lists and new plans to fix them.
1News understands recommendations from a specially convened Health NZ task force will be released next week, with some doctors saying this is the biggest test so far for our new health authority.
An Auckland mum says she has a new spring in her step after receiving a potentially life-saving gastric bypass.
“When you've got other issues like blood pressure [and] high cholesterol it's just to alleviate those and be there for your grandkids,” she said
The woman who doesn't want to be identified underwent surgery six weeks ago but says the six-month wait to see a specialist had her questioning her decision.
“’Am I doing the right thing?’ You read up more, and see some of the bad things, the complications that can happen, that makes you more fearful about doing it.”
The operation finally went ahead after a year-long wait.
“It would be just as hard for lots of other people too I imagine especially if it's negatively affecting their life or someone needs a hip replacement.”
In May the Government revealed waiting times were a big problem nationwide. A task force was launched to help the nearly 36,000 people waiting more than four months for specialist appointments, and another 27,000 waiting for treatment.
The findings are expected later this week. National’s health spokesperson Shane Reti says the situation’s gotten worse.
“What we know since the task force was formed is that waiting lists have gone up. How can that be a good thing?
“They've got painful hips they've got painful knees we know there's a large number going blind with cataracts”
But Health Minister Andrew Little says the task force recommendations will provide a blueprint for improvement.
“What people can expect is that there'll be a set of approaches and systems and processes,” said Little.
“Those who have been waiting certainly longer than four months will get their procedures and get them in a more timely way.”
But GPs are concerned that the current wait lists aren't capturing patients who are rejected for appointments or specialist surgery.
Dr Bryan Betty, medical director at the Royal College of GPs many patients are being rejected for specialist assessments or surgery, and are simply being sent back to their GPs.
He says the task force findings and recommendations are the first real test of the newly formed Health NZ.
“Along with the workforce issues in this country at the moment, these I think, are major, major, issues in our system,” he said.
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