Patients will support healthcare strikes: advocate

Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham

By Rachel Helyer Donaldson of RNZ

Most New Zealanders will support next month's healthcare strikes, because they know the system is "in crisis", a patient advocate says.

Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland said he had nearly completed a six-month nationwide patient advocacy roadshow, and found doctors, nurses and patients across the country "were all on the same page".

"Our health system is in crisis, it's unsustainable for it to continue the way that it is, our doctors and nurses are being greatly undervalued, and they're actually operating in unsafe working environments."

He said patients had "bigger concerns" than a one-day strike, namely "unsafe working conditions, because there simply is not enough staff".

Since October, Mulholland had driven around the country, that said the health system was in crisis and calling on the government to urgently address it.

Buller residents signed the 'Buller Declaration' at a protest march and since then, it had been taken around the country.

Summing up what he'd learned from the roadshow, Mulholland said "stressed out was probably an understatement."

"There were so many heartbreaking stories that were shared, where people - for very good reasons - have rolled up their sleeves and got involved in the health system, but because of the understaffing, they feel burned out, undervalued, people are looking for either other careers or looking to shift overseas."

"Before I started the roadshow, I thought our health system was in crisis, but from what I can see, it's collapsing before our very eyes."

He said those involved needed to work together sensibly.

"It's really important for the government and the minister to stop the name-calling, and to stop making the nurses and the doctors the villains in this piece, but to actually look for something sustainable, long term and planned, for the benefit of patients."

Mulholland said, to complete the Buller Declaration Roadshow, he still needed to visit a few more centres, including Christchurch, Timaru, Gisborne and Wairoa.

At each roadshow, he left a petition-signing sheet. These would be collated in the next few months and the petition was shaping up to be a hundred metres long, he added.

The declaration would be presented to parliament in November.

The story was the same in every community, he said.

"It's lack of GPs, it's bottlenecking in EDs [emergency departments], there's not enough doctors, and it's patients missing out on procedures and - in some instances - it's leading to premature death."

A Health NZ spokesperson said the agency refuted the claims, adding there was a "range of publicly available information on these important issues, including progress on health targets, such as faster cancer treatment".

Earlier this month, Te Whatu Ora's interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley said the agency's quarter-two results for five health targets showed "steady progress overall", with three out of five targets - faster cancer treatment, shorter stays in emergency departments and immunisation rates for children - all showing improvements since last quarter.

Last month, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced a major overhaul of the public health system.

Brown said he was committed to ensuring "all New Zealanders have access to timely, quality healthcare".

"Due to an unprecedented $16.68 billion funding uplift for health under this Government, there are now more doctors and nurses working in Health New Zealand that ever before."

The health system delivered a "significant" amount of care for patients, he added, such as 55,000 GP visits every day - the equivalent of 20 million visits per year. There were also about 3500 visits daily to emergency departments across the country or 1,364,195 total visits in 2023/24.

"In addition, New Zealand's healthcare system delivered 600,814 first specialist assessments in 2023/24, along with 183,860 elective treatments for the likes of hip, knee and cataract surgeries."

Brown acknowledged there were "significant challenges" facing the healthcare system.

"My focus is to ensure the system is delivering more for patients to reduce wait lists, and ensure all Kiwis have access to timely and quality healthcare".