Surgeons Criticise Ministerial Attack on Hawkes Bay District Health Board
13.4.2006
The National Board Chairman Murray Pfeiffer of the Royal Australasian College Surgeons New Zealand says the Hawkes Bay
district Health Board’s decision to refer 1800 patients waiting for first specialist assessment back to their GPs has
more to do with the lack of Government resources than it has to do with ethics or systems management.
He says it is a scandal that the Government does not provide sufficient resources for all those referred by a GP to be
seen by a specialist.
GPs refer patients for specialist opinion in good faith because they believe it will benefit them and claims that they
could better manage the system are fundamentally insulting to their intelligence, he says.
The DHB can’t be expected to know what resources it requires for surgery until patients have been assessed. “The
Minister is expecting the Board to be clairvoyant,” he says.
“It is a classic mistake to believe that all surgeons do is operate – in my practice the vast majority of people I see
go nowhere near the operating theatre. Patients need to be given the opportunity to be assessed so that surgeons can see
what their needs are.” he says.
“The Hawkes Bay District Health Board has little control over the number of case referred for first patient assessment.
It appears that even though GPs are aware of the criteria they need for referrals out-strips the resources available by
about 170 cases per month.
“This is nothing to do with a lack of ethics. All over the country the system is totally under resourced and people are
suffering, their quality of life is suffering and their humanity is being diminished through chronic illness,” he says.
ENDS