Specialist doctor shortage: More than a third of adults not getting healthcare they need
More than a third of adult New Zealanders are not getting the healthcare they need, a new study by the senior doctors union has found.
Patients who need specialist care were being left “in limbo” with their GPs, while the number of people turning up to emergency departments in life-threatening situations is growing.
The report by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists used official data including patient surveys, wait lists for non-surgical care and information about the number of people referred to a specialist but declined care.
About 1.75 million people were missing out on dental care, while 329,000 and 55,000 children were not getting the treatment they needed for mental health or addiction, it said.
The number of people who did not receive specialist care within four months was six times higher in September last year than in July 2019, it found.
In an editorial on the study in the New Zealand Medical Journal, the authors said that had big implications.
“As access to hospital specialists declines, growing numbers of patients are left in limbo under the care of their GPs, adding further to the pressures on access to primary care services, and risks patients’ condition deteriorating and quality of life worsening,” they said.
The report said the number of people turning up to hospital emergency departments has grown by 22 per cent in the nine years to 2023.
And the proportion of them arriving with immediately or potentially life-threatening conditions has grown from a half to two-thirds, it said.
The union said the situation was much worse than in comparable European countries and urgent investigations were needed.
It said any change needed to be much wider than just the health system, addressing the problems that could contribute to bad health including poverty.
===================================================
www.nzherald.co.nz...
==================================================
Special Children's Christmas Parties in Auckland
Special Children's Christmas Parties held their Auckland event at
the Auckland Showgrounds recently inviting thousands of special needs children and their caregivers to a fun day of free entertainment, food and also took home three quality toys to call their own.
Special Children's Christmas Parties have been organising these events for over 25 years across a number of main centres throughout New Zealand.
Now, every year in New Zealand, nearly 10,000 Kiwi children with special needs, challenging life or health circumstances are invited to a party like no other.
The annual event is made possible by many local businesses supporting this event including Neighbourly.co.nz.
To be a part of this special event next year, please contact Aidan Belsham - Aidan@scevents.co.nz
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
-
60.6% Summer
-
37.4% Winter
-
1.9% Other - I'll share below
Loading…
