Cash-starved Family Planning Should Not Have To Apologise To Patients

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says it is shameful that Family Planning has been pushed to a point where it is having to apologise to patients.

Today it said it cannot meet demand and patients are facing long waits for appointments. It said despite population growth, escalating costs and increasing need for services, it has faced 12 years with no funding increase from government. Family planning clinics across the country unable to keep up with demand.

ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says Family Planning has been providing essential and valuable services for thousands of New Zealand women against a backdrop of chronic underfunding.

“Every time we go into pay negotiations with our senior doctors at Family Planning, they tell us they are constrained by the Ministry of Health contracts they are under. It’s well past time that the Ministry addressed the long starve they have forced NGOs like Family Planning into”.

“When you talk about investment in health - is there anything that pays a greater dividend than supporting women to plan their fertility, maintain their reproductive health, and get evidence-based advice and support?”

Sarah Dalton says Family Planning is not the one which should be apologising to patients.

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