Access To Waikanae Health

Marie from Waikanae

Need to see a doctor over Christmas? Don’t bother calling Waikanae Health. It would be quicker to go and wait in A & E to be seen.
For the past seven months I have been attempting to make an appointment with Waikanae Health without success. Most of the time when I called I have just been permanently left on hold. I tried for days at one stage to get a Covid test and ended up going to Team Medical, who did the test the very next morning and I didn’t even have to get out of the car. They were brilliant. I have been unable to get through to Waikanae Health using manage my health which appears to have crashed. Once, I did get through to Waikanae health and managed to arrange a telephone consult. I waited for hours but no one ever called. I subsequently found that a script had been faxed through to the pharmacy, but no one bothered to tell me that. Believing that perseverance pays off, I managed to get another appointment for this morning for a repeat prescription. I had written the time down as 9.30 and when I arrived I was 5 minutes late.
Firstly, the receptionist told me there was no booking for this appointment in the system. After searching for some time she told me it was a telephone consult, also incorrect. Finally she found it and went to talk to the doctor. By this stage I was 10 minutes late and the doctor refused to see me. When I mentioned that manage my health appeared to have crashed, the reception informed me that they were using another computer system. No information was given about an alternative patient portal so I can only assume that patient’s needs are too much of a bother for this provider.
Todays refusal to be seen was the final straw for me and I left feeling furious. I am seriously considering a formal complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner about the lack of access to health care. I am usually a fairly assertive person with good health literacy. If I can’t get access to health care, how are others getting on? I read on one neighbourly post that a patient believed Waikanae Health were hiding from their patients and I chuckled when I read it. Now I’m thinking maybe they were right. I noted there was no one else in the clinic when I went there.
My concerns about the level of health care given by this provider go back even further, with my regular doctor permanently on leave. Some twelve months ago the doctor I saw informed me bluntly that, at a size 16, I was obese. Having taught med students for many years, I do not believe they are invincible. As a lifestyle block owner I routinely engage in hard physical work 4-6 hours each day. I have a high level of muscle mass and, despite carrying a little extra weight, I am strong and reasonably fit. The doctor couldn’t see past the empiricism to consider the social determinants of health. I am well aware of the limitations of the BMI (for example, the All Blacks are considered obese as the calculations do not differentiate between fat and muscle tissue) and also the current aging research (my PhD area) that suggests that carrying a little extra weight in older age can be advantageous. I felt the treatment I received was offensive, tactless and poorly informed.
I’m not that impressed with Mahara Health either, given some of the feedback I have received. I have also had dealings with some of the medics there in other health settings and encountered attitudes toward disability that properly belong in the Dickensian era. So looks like I will have to leave the district to find a decent doctor. Can anyone out there recommend a good one?