Reducing the long wait times for specialist doctor appointments remains a pressing challenge, but a key priority these days is to prepare the healthcare system for the upcoming winter, says Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.
Clinics and hospitals across the country are on a drip, as a severe staff shortage continues to disrupt operations, and the human resource crunch has snowballed into a major healthcare challenge.
An infectious diseases doctor herself, the health minister spoke to The Indian Weekender about her government’s key healthcare challenges and how she plans to tackle them.
Q1. What are your key priorities at this stage as the health minister?
I have three top priorities that will ease the pressures on the health system: strengthening the system to ensure we get through winter, reducing waitlists and addressing workforce shortages.
Q2. What do you have to say to those who claim there is a healthcare crisis in NZ?
There is no doubt that there are pressures on the health system, which the Covid-19 pandemic and a global workforce shortage have exacerbated.
But we have a strong plan to deal with these pressures, including a winter preparedness plan to enable the health system to deal with winter pressures, and several initiatives to attract health workers.
Q3. What are the biggest challenges, and how do you plan to deal with them?
This government is committed to making people live longer, healthier lives and receive the healthcare they deserve, irrespective of where they live.
The Smokefree Tobacco Amendment Bill passed last year [in 2022] means thousands of lives will be saved, and the health system will be $5 billion better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and amputations.
Q4. How do you plan to deal with the labour shortage?
New Zealand is not immune to the shortage of healthcare workers globally. Between March 2017 and December 2022, Te Whatu Ora (Te Whatu Ora leads the day-to-day running of the health system across New Zealand) increased the number of nurses they employ by 4,108 full-time equivalent nurses – a 19 per cent increase.
There is no doubt that there are still too many vacancies because Covid-19 disrupted the immigration of new nurses into the system.
That's why we've stepped up efforts to attract and retain more nurses. Since the pandemic, we've improved immigration pathways for nurses, giving automatic residency to nurses who come to work here.
On top of that, we recently announced changes to the Immigration Green List, which means there is now a total of 48 health roles, all of which will be on the Straight to Residence pathway.
Q5. How would you rate New Zealand’s health system compared to other OECD countries?
A recent report shows that New Zealand delivered some of the lowest excess mortality rates in the world last year as we navigated the emergence of Covid-19.
Q6. What is your strategy for dealing with the long wait hours, ongoing delays, and long waits for specialist appointments?
As health minister, I am doing everything I can to alleviate the pressures in the health system. This includes paying nurses fairly, as we know this is vital to attracting them to the profession and opening up immigration pathways to attract health workers from overseas.
Q7. Everyone, including migrants, feels they can't get a specialist doctor appointment on time. What work are you doing to tackle that?
Undoubtedly, our planned care services are under pressure, which means patients with scheduled surgeries may have their procedures pushed out. We have a cohesive plan to address this.
The Planned Care Taskforce, which was set up last year, highlighted 101 recommendations that need to be implemented to tackle planned care waiting lists.
The taskforce focuses on waitlists and people waiting longer than a year for treatment.
ISSUE
.jpg)
