Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists
A “haphazard service” is all Health New Zealand can promise patients with chronic bowel conditions in Palmerston North, where the gastroenterology service has collapsed.
The promise was handed down by Health NZ’s National Clinical Director Richard Sullivan at a public meeting at Massey University last night, attended by more than 170 people.
“That’s just not good enough,” ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says. “It shouldn’t take a public meeting to goad HNZ into action. And even now, there seems to be no plan.
“In the past two years the MidCentral gastroenterology service has collapsed – from six specialists to none.
Both Sullivan and Executive Regional Director for the Central Region Chris Lowry were present at the meeting. “But neither had any concrete answers nor offered any specific timeframe for change,” Dalton says.
“Health NZ acknowledged they had interviewed 20 people for these vacancies and only one person has accepted a job offer – that should tell them something.
ASMS is calling for regional and rural allowances to incentivise and support doctors to put down roots in our smaller hospitals.
“If 11 out of 12 applicants decline a job offer, HNZ needs to find out why – and remove these recruitment barriers.
“HNZ leaders wouldn’t commit to specific actions, leaving community members asking if their health needs are less important than those of Auckland’s population – which is far better served.
ASMS is concerned that Lowry and Sullivan’s “regional solutions” will mean patients being forced to travel out of the district for care – and that there is a lack of commitment to safe, sustainable staffing at Palmerston North hospital.
“There are barely any gastroenterologists at neighbouring hospitals – so we are keen to know how these regional solutions are supposed to work.”
Notes: The public meeting was organised by ASMS in collaboration with Patient Voice Aotearoa.