Two unions have accused Nelson Hospital of booking patients for appointments that didn’t exist to make their numbers look better.
But Health New Zealand said it was an administrative measure due to a limitation of their booking system, and they should have communicated better with staff.
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the Nurses Union stand by their concerns and have written to the Health and Disability Commissioner, the Public Service Commission and Auditor-General.
It comes as Nelson Hospital is under the microscope after senior doctors spoke out about their concerns staffing levels were impacting patient safety.
Clinicians’ concerns: ‘The clinic doesn’t exist’
Documents released to 1News by the senior doctors union and Nurses Union show an email exchange between a clinician at Nelson Hospital and a manager.
In late June the clinician wrote that they had noticed some “unusual activity” with patient bookings. “It looks like there are 23 long wait patients listed as booked for a clinic scheduled for tomorrow under (redacted). However, the clinic doesn’t exist as she is on leave.”
A copy of the booking system for June 24, with the patient’s details redacted, shows the patients were booked in for five minute slots with the note “DO NOT CONTACT PATIENT”.
After the clinician again raised concerns, the manager emailed back: “We have received clear messaging from the commissioner that no patients are to be waiting longer than two years for an FSA by [June 30] and need to have a plan to be seen”.
“So by creating the virtual clinic I was able to create a space for those patients to be held until booked.” The email ends with: “please be assured as clumsy as this may seem, I am trying to do the right thing by everyone”.
Health New Zealand defends approach
Health NZ denied the accusation, instead calling it a temporary administrative move. (Source: 1News)
Health New Zealand’s clinical lead of planned care Dr Derek Sherwood said there was no attempt to hide these patients in the system.
“They were in the process of organising appointments for them and temporarily parked some of these patients for administrative reasons in a clinic that was not a real clinic. Within a few days those patients were then moved into proper appointments and clinics.”
He said Nelson Hospital’s booking system could only book six weeks in advance and the manager was using this as a workaround.
“These people remained on the waiting list, they were completely visible in terms of the health targets.”
Dr Sherwood said those patients have now been given appointments with the latest due to be seen in September. He said it could have been handled better.
“I think it was absolutely right for the clinician to ask the question… I think the communication back was poor and I think that’s the learning from this.”
Questions still remain – unions
The two unions which raised these concerns said they were “disappointed” and “appalled” when they saw the emails. Following Health New Zealand’s response, they still have concerns.
The Nurses Union’s Paul Goulter said: “We’re dealing with people’s real lives here. People who’ve waited a long time for specialist appointments and haven’t managed to get them and then to have the situation fabricated because of the pressure that these targets are putting on staff… that’s simply not good enough.”
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists’ Sarah Dalton said a clear risk of targets is that people get in the system “so they appear to be meeting them because they’re worried about the consequences of not meeting the targets”.
Both unions said they’ve never heard of appointments being managed this way.
Minister Simeon Brown said the way this issue was communicated isn’t acceptable.
“I’ll be seeking assurances from the new Health New Zealand board to make sure that these processes are robust and that that the systems are working.”
When asked whether he was considering a commissioner for Nelson Hospital Brown added: “There’s a review underway. That review will come out later this week.”
