Helping people communicate better with the health system

The men and women who work in New Zealand's health system are working hard to communicate more easily with the public but two organisations can help when things go less well than hoped, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said today

He was speaking at a meeting of the Nationwide Health and Disability Advocacy Service and Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner HDC staff at their combined conference in Auckland, where he thanked staff for becoming part of a culture change in society to examine issues and learn from them.

Both organisations assist the public to communicate with health professionals and ways to find resolutions when or if there are issues.

"Their services are helping us improve quality and discover ways to improve communication between the public and the health sector and so I wholeheartedly support their work," Pete Hodgson said.

While the Advocacy Service provides ways to improve the quality of the health and disability services and help resolutions of issues at a grass-root level, the HDC offers more formal pathways to resolution for consumers with an issue. Both share common ground and refer public between services.

Most of the seven thousand or so contacts with the HDC are not complaints, but are a mixture of providers wanting guidance or advice, and people who need the minimum of assistance.

"Under a Labour-led Government we have started to shine the spotlight on issues, incidents and use problems to find solutions or improve understanding and education. I thank the staff involved from these two organisations. They are a resource which we should use as a tool to help the health system continuously improve." Pete Hodgson said.

http://www.hdc.org.nz/advocacy
http://www.hdc.org.nz/

ENDS

© Scoop Media