health board

District health boards (DHBs) around the country have begun advertising cutbacks in services when junior doctors strike next week. The strike is from 7am on April 22 to 7am on April 24. Most non-urgent surgery, along with some outpatient appointments would be affected. Some services would be cancelled and many hospitals would not be accepting woman in labour. Counties Manukau, Auckland and Waitemata DHBs placed a joint newspaper advertisement saying all non-urgent patients should seek help from a family doctor or nearby medical centre. Six Auckland hospitals and two medical centres would be offering "very limited services," the advertisement said.
DHBs nationwide were also asking anyone with a non-urgent illness to ring Healthline as a first port of call. Letters were being sent to patients booked for non-urgent surgery and outpatient clinic appointments to let them know if they would be affected. Health Minister David Cunliffe has lashed out at the junior doctors' union.
He said more than 8000 people would be affected by the strike. National health spokesman Tony Ryall said he believed the number of patients likely to be affected by the strike would be more than the 8000 Mr Cunliffe had estimated.
He had a memo that showed that at Auckland DHB alone "more than 1500 specialist appointments and surgeries are being postponed". "On that basis, the total number of patients likely to be affected nationally would be around 10,000." The human cost of this "cruel strike" was mounting by the day, Mr Ryall said.