200,000 Kiwis waiting for first specialist appointments

Earlier this month there were 200,000 Kiwis waiting for an appointment with a specialist doctor, with tens of thousands more waiting for elective surgeries.

While access to first specialist appointments and elective procedures are among the Government's five health targets, currently wait times are getting longer, according to the latest quarterly data.

Dr Andrew Connolly, who has led Health New Zealand's planned care task force, says the trend has changed more recently.

"We saw considerable growth in demand in the last two or three years and we're now seeing that appears to have plateaued and certainly, in recent weeks to months, we have seen a net reduction," he said.

"It's not as quick as any of us want and the reductions yet are not as big as we need but we're certainly heading in the right direction."

Dr Connolly said there has been a lot of unmet need in the community which has built up over time and, along with other factors, led to an increase in wait lists.

There's been work underway to update the wait lists and more than 10,000 procedures have been outsourced.

1News has been hearing from patients in Nelson over the last month about how long wait times are impacting them.

Adele Yank waited 18 months for hernia surgery and while she was finally given a date for last November, she wasn't able to make it.

"I got rebooked for February and I eventually got to have my surgery. Everything was great and 10 days post-op, unfortunately I leaned back in someone's armchair and went flying back more than I anticipated and I felt my wound rip."

She is now in a lot of pain but has been told she will be seen within five months. In response to her case, Health NZ encouraged anyone with concerns about their care to get in touch.

Dr Allan Moffitt of ProCare in Auckland says currently, it feels like the system is broken.

"I have a patient who had cancer and I could tell that it was a serious type of cancer. Her referral took over six months to be seen," he said.

Dr Moffit said many patients are not being referred at all.

"Many of them are being declined and a result of that is often a GP will not even bother sending a referral in."

While he hopes things will turn around as the Government's changes come into effect, the results haven't been seen on the frontline yet.

Health researcher Robin Gauld said wait list issues are currently the worst he can recall. She said the flow-on effects for patients are huge.

"They'll be in considerable pain, discomfort. They may be struggling to hold down a job. Their quality of life is severely effected as a result of this. Of course, then the GP needs to manage that patient and they're often managing patients that they're not equipped to manage."

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists' Sarah Dalton said more doctors is what's needed.

"Private hospitals only have limited extra capacity and also the cost per procedure to the taxpayer is higher."