Health targets are crowding out follow-up care, senior doctors' union says
The senior doctors' union says the coalition government's health targets are pushing acute care and follow-up appointments down the queue.
Sarah Dalton, head of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), told RNZ's Morning Report, RNZ reported: "We would argue that the targets that focus specifically on planned care and first specialist appointments are incentivising and, in fact, forcing hospitals to focus on those things at the expense of acute care and on follow-up appointments."
In Wednesday's Morning Report health debate, Labour's Ayesha Verrall confirmed Labour would keep the coalition government's health targets if elected, RNZ reported.
Dalton named the patients she says are missing out, according to RNZ. One group is people with chronic medical conditions, particularly those who rely on physicians, combinations of medications and monitoring over time. The other is mental health patients who need regular contact with psychiatrists and their teams.
Dalton also said no one was speaking in a "meaningful way" about specialist doctors, which she said includes GPs, RNZ reported. According to RNZ's programme summary, ASMS welcomed the attention on nurse and GP shortages but wants parties to also consider how to bolster the specialist workforce.
She was blunt about the parties' interest in health workers who aren't doctors. "I think the focus on non-doctor healthcare is more about cost-cutting and a refusal to engage in the challenges of recruiting to hard-to-staff areas rather than what's best for patients," she told Morning Report, RNZ reported. "If we want a health system that is responsive and safe, it needs to continue to be led and staffed by senior doctors and dentists."
