Delays for MRI scans scary - MP
''DHBS are being forced to ration these services.'' Labour MP David Clark
More people are waiting longer for crucial scans and colonoscopies, and some doctors are performing procedures after hours to keep up with demand.
A snapshot taken on April 1, requested by Labour, showed the number of patients waiting longer than three months for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans in Wellington, Canterbury and Southern regions had ballooned, when compared with the same date the previous year.
District health boards blame increased referrals, doctors’ strikes, and an inability to fill job vacancies. But Labour health spokesman David Clark said the figures indicated hospitals could not keep up.
‘‘I think what we’re seeing here – and it is scary – is that DHBS are being forced to ration these services, and they are doing it because sometimes they’re stretched for staffing and sometimes because they don’t have sufficient equipment.’’
In the Counties Manukau area, senior doctors were performing procedures ‘‘out of hours and on weekends’’ to meet demand for colonoscopies, the DHB said in its response to Labour’s Official Information Act request.
Acting chief executive Gloria Johnson said there had been an ‘‘unprecedented increase in referral rates’’ for colonoscopies in the past two years.
The junior doctors’ strike activity in November 2016 and January 2017, and difficulty in filling doctor vacancies, added to the pressure.
Wellington Hospital fired up two new MRI scanners in 2016, replacing its single outdated machine, which initially halved its waiting times.
But as of April 1 this year, 286 patients had been waiting between three and six months for an MRI scan, far more than the 18 who were on the waiting list the previous year. Ten had been waiting more than a year.
Hospital and healthcare services general manager Chris Lowry said there had been a significant increase in MRI referrals and Wellington Hospital had been unable to fill two fulltime MRI technologist vacancies, ‘‘which affected the number of people who could be scanned’’.
The Southern DHB also cited lack of staff, and the replacement of the only MRI scanner in Dunedin, for its burgeoning wait times. More than 1100 people were waiting on April 1 this year, compared with 650 last year.
It was training extra staff and outsourcing scans in order to cope.
Other DHBS also revealed to Labour that hundreds of referrals for diagnostic services were declined in 2016.
But DHBS say these were usually due to double-ups in referrals, administrative errors, or insufficient information.
The Waikato DHB declined 414 GP referrals for colonoscopies in 2016. Taranaki declined 121, and Wellington 36.
The figures raise concern about how health providers will cope with demand generated through the bowel screening programme, which rolls out nationwide this month with people aged 50-74 invited for colonoscopies every two years.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said an extra $77.8m would be trickled out across DHBS over the next three years for the programme, ‘‘and an additional $19m of funding for colonoscopy services has been provided to DHBS since 2013-14’’.
Stephanie Chapman, Health Ministry director for the national bowel screening programme, said DHBS had to show they could meet usual waiting time targets alongside the extra screening, to be deemed ready to join.