Malcolm Mulholland: Patient Voice Aotearoa spokesperson voices concerns with the Government's progress towards health targets

There's concerns the figures given on Government health targets don't give the whole picture.

Numbers on cancer treatment access, childhood immunisation, ED stays and wait times improved in the latest quarter.

But Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland says the data doesn't reflect things like when patients leave ED.

He says there are also questions around the cancer target - which asks for 90 percent of patients to start treatment within 31 days of deciding it'll happen.

"Many oncologists would say - that's the wrong metric, the right metric is from the date of diagnosis to the date you are first seen by a specialist."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the government is growing about getting closer to hitting
its health targets. Cancer treatment, access, childhood immunization, ed stays
and wait times all improved in the latest quarter trouble
as though postcode lottery is still a problem. So for example,
in the Lakes District, timely cancer treatment for patients plunged
from ninety seven percent down to eighty three percent. Malcolm
will Holland from Patient Voice ALTI it or is with

(00:21):
maham Malcolm, Hey, Heather, isn't this isn't it the case
that the reality is and reality always will be that
if you live in different parts of the country you
will get different treatment.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, very much so, although what I would say is
we're starting to see a bit of a creep. We
normally bad holth outcomes what happen mainly in the rural areas.
We're now starting to see doctors speak out who operate
in some of our largest cities and centers. So that's
got to be an area of real concern.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Why is it just lack of workforce?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It is primarily yes, I would definitely say that, And
we don't seem to have a long term plan by
which we can get the doctors and the specialists that
we need not only just to service our current population,
but a growing population, one that is getting older by
the year and also has a lot more morbidity issues

(01:15):
with that population.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
What's the problem lack of money?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It is, Yeah, lack of money and also I think
we need to get some accurate picture around where the
money is going. It's been some years since the government
have put in the data to the OECD. I've seen
some challenging research around how much we actually do spend
on health and how it has been spent. I think

(01:39):
we need to get to the numb of that before
we can have an honest conversation about where it needs
to go.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Is the problem that we're facing right now, Malcolm that
instead of lift changing, instead of fixing the postcode lottery
by lifting the parts of the country that are not
performing that well, we're actually we're actually seeing everything fall
back to the same position as those performing the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah. I think so. And I think too that the
measures you know, the data is only good as the
data that you provide. There are a number of issues
around the metrics that the government are operating under. We
know that there is a very high threshold by which
to be seen, and we know that triarching happens even
before you get to see a specialist. We know that

(02:19):
the data doesn't catch everything, for example, patients who leave VD.
We know that the system can be gained in is
gained and we've seen evidence of that. And also they've
got to have the right metrics in place. So when
it comes to Kenser care, for example, Heather, many oncologists
would say that's the wrong metric. The right metric is
from the date of diagnosis to the date you are

(02:40):
first scene by a specialist.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Hey, thank you very much, Malcolm, appreciate it. Malcolm will
Holland Patient voice outs here at all.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
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