The Southern District Health Board has blamed a ‘‘significant data problem'' for figures that appear to show 28% of patients missed out on a hospital appointment in a single month.
Information released by the Ministry of Health yesterday relate to first specialist assessments (FSA) from July to September.
The information release is part of an effort to count the number of patients being pushed out of the hospital system, after criticism the Government was allowing them to be forgotten.
In August, the SDHB turned away nearly 20% of FSA, and in July it turned away 11%. The national average in all three months was about 10%.
Its September result of 28% was the highest in the country by 10 percentage points, but the number of referrals was low, only 589, compared with more than 3500 in July, when the board was much closer to the national average.
SDHB chief medical officer Dr Nigel Millar said no conclusions could be drawn from the information, and the figures were likely to be incomplete in August and September.
‘‘That data probably isn't representative.''
‘‘The 28% probably doesn't mean anything, fortunately.''
The board was carrying two separate patient systems for Otago and Southland, and that caused difficulty providing accurate figures to the Ministry of Health.
‘‘We have a significant data problem,'' Dr Millar said.
In a media release, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the information would help the sector understand what happened to hospital referrals.
‘‘The snapshot of national data published last month has been updated as more data has become available, and it now includes a breakdown by DHB.''
The decline rate for patients who did not meet the severity threshold for treatment was 5% nationally. When other reasons for declining patients are included, such as insufficient information, the figure rises to just over 10%.
‘‘As the data builds we expect the number of patients sent back to their GP for care as they did not meet the threshold may rise to around 10% to 15%.
‘‘Patients will be interested to know what is happening in their DHB. It's important to provide transparency.
‘‘As a result of implementing the national patient flow project, DHBs are already making improvements to their referral management systems, administration processes, and communications with patients,'' Dr Coleman said.
In a media release last night, the senior doctors' union said the new information was a ‘‘partial snapshot that falls seriously short'' of providing an accurate picture of unmet patient need.
