Booking System More Ethical Than Waiting List

Health Minister Bill English said today the elective surgery Booking System was more ethical than the waiting list system, because it meant people with the most need were treated first and because it was a more transparent system.

"The Booking System is being put in place to give people a fairer deal about getting surgery. It will give people certainty and means that those with the greatest need will be treated first. That is more ethical than treating people according to when they were placed on a waiting list.

"There are people on the waiting list who have no idea when they will get surgery or even if they will ever get it. That is not fair and it does not strike me as particularly ethical.

"It has been suggested today that the Booking System should have been referred to an ethics committee for consideration. The role of ethics committees within the health sector is to protect the public when they are research participants or receiving new treatments. In contrast, the Booking System does not change the way doctors treat their patients. What it does mean is that doctors have to write down how they make decisions, but I don't see what is unethical about that.

"The system was recommended by the Core Committee in 1993 and adopted as Government policy in 1995. Since then hundreds of doctors around the country have been working hard implementing it. I am surprised that a couple of doctors have raised these concerns about it now when it has been widely discussed for so many years now," said Mr English.