Not seeing any change

Not seeing any change to care provided. I had expected that the region's services would be more integrated and serve as hubs. Still disjointed and no continuity of care or greater access to service. Have personally visited a GP in the Hutt Valley who referred me to secondary care a specialist at Hutt Hopsital, only for my referral to be declined 3 weeks later because I technically live in the "CCDHB" catchment. Had to start referral process and clock all over again to be referred to someone at Wellington. We are in same region - it needs to be aligned and integrated.

Why the contribution is important

Without integrated services and integrated care, outcomes worsen due to slow or no continuity of care.

by HealthUser on March 11, 2023 at 08:50AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 5.0
Based on: 2 votes

Comments

  • Posted by gmahony March 11, 2023 at 18:52

    I agree – I'm shocked Te Whatu Ora think anything has changed at this point in time?

    I thought the rebranding and bringing together of DHBs was the beginning and actual change must be still coming? There's been no cultural change in the way health sector staff on the ground behave or interact – they still talk about their DHBs, we are still limited to the services available in our areas, staff have little knowledge of services outside of their own area of practice and are too siloed to be able to direct patients to the right place.

    Instead of a "no wrong door" experience where patients trying to access the health system are directed to the help they need, I experience a "not my problem" attitude from many in the sector who are overworked, underfunded and constantly trying to pass the buck to someone else because they're too busy treading water with the workload they're already struggling to stay on top of.

    My worst experience was recently trying to access maternal mental health services. It took 7 referrals between my GP and midwife (both very unsure about what services were available and how to access them) before I was picked up by the right team, including one experience where I was passed onto a Wellington Hospital grief and loss counseling service who told me I wasn't eligible because my "baby isn't dead" before rejecting my referral and sending me back to the drawing board.

    We've got a long way to go before we see a united, adequately resourced system that works for both patients and the sector's very undervalued staff.

  • Posted by jennynoble March 14, 2023 at 09:58

    I agree with the comments above. I have seen no changes in the hospital system in regards to someone with a disability. Surgical lists are huge and the wait time is terrible. Referrals within the system to other departments are being declined.

    Our latest decline was to the pain team who gave the following reasons for decline: The condition is too complex which limits available treatments and they believe they would be unlikely to provide benefit therefore were are declining this referral. What happened to lets meet with the family first and have a conversation and see where we can go from there.

    Unless there is significant change on how the Health system cares for the disabled parents/patients will continue to see this level of response. It is almost like oh well to complex to rare we cant help. What ever happened to multidisciplinary care for a patient with a complex health condition.

    Getting GP appointments can take up to 3 weeks.

  • Posted by AngryofEketahuna March 16, 2023 at 17:25

    I agree that the "postcode lottery" of care should have been fixed already, it should be one of the easier things to sort out. Just as an example I live in an area that has numerous boundaries for different things-local council, voting etc. Technically, for health it comes under what was Mid-Central DHB, but it is twice as long to get to the hospital in Palmerston North than Wairarapa. A lot of the locals in the area have Masterton GPs. Often patients are transported to Masterton by the paramedics, and those paramedics, and dare I say it patients, frequently get questioned as to why they are there and not PMN! It is madness that with the stopping of DHBs people are still subject to boundary issues.
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