No end in sight to years of pain
A Christchurch woman who has endured severe abdominal pains for six years is among thousands unable to get their health concerns diagnosed and treated by hospital specialists.
Samantha Scoble said her stomach swells to the size of a beach ball and she is barely able to walk when the pain strikes.
‘‘It’s hard and it’s painful and it gives me a sore back; it’s awful,’’ the 31-year-old said.
A referral to see a hospital specialist from her GP was rejected without explanation last year. The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) stated the gastroenterology service was ‘‘unable to offer . . . an appointment at this time due to the number of people waiting with a greater level of need’’.
Scoble said she used her health insurance to get a colonoscopy and endoscopy in 2015, and another colonoscopy in 2016, but the tests did not reveal the cause of pain.
The surgeon who performed the second colonoscopy referred her to a gastroenterologist, but her insurer would not cover any further procedures so she returned to her GP for a public referral.
Scoble cannot understand why it was declined.
‘‘I mean [I] pay taxes . . . [I’m] not on any sort of benefits and we’ve got to this point where private insurance won’t cover it and I can’t manage to get an appointment in the public system.’’
CDHB planning and funding general manager Carolyn Gullery said access to assessments was based on the patient’s symptoms and any previous tests they’d had.
‘‘If a patient has had diagnostics recently, such as blood tests, or a colonoscopy that has not detected anything of concern, they will be managed in the community setting, which is usually through their own general practice.’’
Gullery said if symptoms changed or worsened, the person’s GP could refer them again.
Taranaki gastroenterologist Dr Campbell White said a specialist assessment would be appropriate for someone who had ongoing and unexplained pain.
Additional scans could be used to assess parts of the bowel not able to be viewed with a colonoscopy or endoscopy.
There was a high demand for specialist services, but not enough gastroenterologists, he said.
‘‘In an ideal world everyone with gastro-intestinal symptoms will see a gastroenterologist ... and that would be happening if we had unlimited numbers but we don’t have those numbers, especially in the public system.’’
District health boards used their own criteria to determine who could get a specialist appointment, depending on demand and the number of specialists they had.
Government figures show nearly 60,000 New Zealanders were declined a ‘‘first specialist assessment’’ in the last financial year.
– Fairfax NZ