Shane Reti: Health Minister says Health NZ is investigating claims people are being booted off hospital wait-lists

The Health Minister says he's confident people aren't being booted from hospital waitlists so Health New Zealand can meets targets. 

A letter obtained by RNZ reveals some referrals from a Palmerston North orthopaedic clinic are being knocked back, due to a lack of resources.

Shane Reti says checks are in place to ensure targets aren't gamed.

He says Health New Zealand is investigating the letter.

"As the 20 DHBs came together, there were a lot of different protocols - bringing them all into one place is what they're looking to do, but certainly, that is not the policy."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather do for Seelan government is today announced forty two
million dollars for fifty new senior doctors and more specialist nurses,
minor repairs for hospitals, replacement appliances for patients and stuff,
and also new books or toys for kitties who are
in the hospital. Shane that Ittsi is the Health minister.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey Shane, good afternoon. Heither Shane.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Is this new money or is this money that the
Health Commissioner has found and freed up?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh? This is new places. So this is on top
of the existing basseline and it's a combination of two things.
Up when it is reprioritize money and two it's part
of the one point four billion of new money that
was put into health this year.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay, so where did he free this money up from?
What has he cut spending on?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So we've been talking for some period of time about
how we're reprioritizing back office to front line without looking
to impact clinical delivery, and so some of the savings
are coming from that and some of the funding is
coming from the new money into health.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Have we had any redundancies voluntary redundancies taken up by
doctors senior doctors and specialist nurses at all.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh, it hasn't actually been offered to senior doctors and nurses.
It's only been offered to back officer at this point,
So I would have to say not that I'm aware of.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, have you caught up on this business going on
with people being rejected from specialists so that they don't
get added to the weightlist?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, I did see that story, and I haven't seen
the letter in health. The zelands looking to see that
letter as well. What they've said to me is that
as the tweitty DHBs came together, there are a lot
of different protocols. Bringing them all into one place is
what they're looking to do, But certainly that is not
the policy, and they're looking to investigate their further.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Are you worried that this is just gaming the weightlist?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, I wouldn't be worried, of course, except we've spent
a lot of time looking at what's called the balances
to make sure all of the targets aren't gained. For example,
the shortest days in the emergency department, the challenge there
is bed block, so maybe you just discharge people home earlier,
free up the beds and improved that shortest days in
an emergency department time. Here's the thing though, if people

(02:01):
are readmitted inside a thirty day, maybe they were sent
home early. Okay, well, one of the balances is that readmitted.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
So how do you then prevent gaming of a weightlist?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Right?

Speaker 1 (02:10):
So let's say I need some orthopedic surgery. I need
to go see an orthopedic specialist. They say no, sorry,
the weight list is so long I can't even add
you to it. How do you prevent that gaming happening?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So there's several things are First of all, decline referrals
are something that's assessed by Health New Zealand. And if
we were able to see decline referrals referrals for a
level of care, which is measured messioned by what's called
a SEAPAC score, depends you know that the level of
urgency and how serious a condition is. If we were
seeing declines for SEAPAC levels, it really should be treated
and that would be something we'd bring to the Intention
of Health U Zeeland.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Kay, do you agree with the Prime Minister that David
Seymour needs to butt out of the Ycutter Union Medical School?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I am more focused on getting an updated cost benefit
analysis across the line. We want to make the right
decision with the right information. That's what Cabinet has instructed
us to do, to bring the best information to get
so that we can make the best call. And I'm
sure that's actually what David and and Chris are saying.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Good stuff, Shane, Thanks very much, Shane Rittie, the Health Minister.
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