{"id":526244,"date":"2026-07-14T21:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526244\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:30:10","slug":"patients-shouldnt-have-to-self-triage-to-relieve-strain-on-the-health-system-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526244\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients shouldn\u2019t have to self-triage to relieve strain on the health system \u2013 Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

That means, where appropriate, a healthcare professional other than a GP \u2013 a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist, a physio \u2013 can deal with a patient.<\/p>\n

Bulls Medical Centre GP Dr Kenneth Young says that approach should be encouraged, as \u201cnot all ails need a doctor and things can be triaged\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emergency departments are known to take a similar approach<\/a> to high demand, with patients being redirected to other health providers where appropriate.<\/p>\n

None of this is a bad thing, assuming patients get sufficient care.<\/p>\n

In a health system where resources are scarce, expertise needs to be rationed and directed where most required.<\/p>\n

But the risk is around triaging.<\/p>\n

It should not be up to patients to decide what level of care they need.<\/p>\n

A seemingly innocuous ailment could be the sign of something serious.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to send a message that seeking a GP appointment or visiting the emergency department is a burden.<\/p>\n

The risk is that something minor doesn\u2019t get checked out and turns into something far more serious. At worst, life-threatening.<\/p>\n

If we are going to look at using the health system as a whole \u2013 and we should \u2013 we must ensure it\u2019s not up to the patient to make an uninformed decision about where to go.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a decision for a qualified medical expert whose job is to get the person the best and required medical attention, not to relieve pressure on the system.<\/p>\n

A team approach also can\u2019t be used to mask the fact that we need to strengthen GPs and emergency departments in this country.<\/p>\n

News that Waikato Medical School students will be placed in regions around the country will help with that.<\/p>\n

Healthcare must adapt to the times.<\/p>\n

But one thing that can\u2019t change is patients getting the help they need in a timely manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That means, where appropriate, a healthcare professional other than a GP \u2013 a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[66309,260290,16717,7061,13997,14768,305,134,527,9641,130,9812,111,139,69,90,6293,139868,260291,7812,260289,33285,35836,6211,1361,223,61],"class_list":["post-526244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-acceptable","tag-ailment","tag-becoming","tag-doctor","tag-editorial","tag-every","tag-have","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-idea","tag-more","tag-needs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-patients","tag-relieve","tag-relieving","tag-seen","tag-selftriage","tag-shouldnt","tag-strain","tag-system","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}