General practitioners are having to step up and do more for patients who cannot access over-crowded hospital specialties, Dunedin GP Jill McIlraith says.
Southern District Health Board figures released to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act show 111 gynaecology patients referred for a specialist appointment had been sent back to their GP this year without seeing a specialist.
''This is called a virtual first specialist assessment,'' chief executive Carole Heatly explained in her response to the ODT.
GPs were given guidelines for managing the patient.
''I don't have a problem with that as the advice is often as helpful as if [the specialist] had seen the patient, and we can always refer back once we have tried their suggestions or things have changed,''Dr McIlraith said.
GPs were now performing procedures such as pipelle biopsies for endometrial cancer investigation.
Urgent patients were still able to access the hospital.
''I have not had a problem getting patients seen for urgent or potentially serious conditions such as suspected malignancy, but we are managing more and more in the community.
''That doesn't mean patients are getting less of a service, but it is a change and so it may be perceived as that - but it is the only way we can sustain good care,'' Dr McIlraith said.
For gynaecology patients who are accepted to the service, the urgent wait time at Dunedin Hospital was up to two weeks, three months for semi-urgent, and four months for non-urgent.
