A dying Dunedin man is urging patients waiting for too long to see a specialist to help save their own lives by picking up the phone.
It follows a damning investigation by the Health and Disability Commission last week which found six years of delays and disruptions in the Southern district and the psychological toll on those left waiting for timely care.
Stephen Hoffman spent 10 months on a waiting list in 2016 for urgent prostate cancer surgery. It spread to liver and lungs and he now has a tumour at the base of his brain.
RNZ last spoke to him in 2019, and his situation has gotten worse.
The DHB has since apologised for shortening the 68-year-old's life.
Hoffman invited RNZ to his home in Dunedin this afternoon, and RNZ asked him what he saw as the problems in the system.
"It's just down to funding, again, and they're just not coming forth with what they need to do, so, you know, it's funding."
"I didn't actually have poor care. The care I have had has been absolutely fantastic.
"But, it was the administration side of it. What I picked up on was, they were using inexperienced people to do jobs that needed really highly, highly qualified people to be triaging people."
Stephen Hoffman spoke to RNZ in 2019. Photo: RNZ
Hoffman said it is important to act quickly for patients' benefit, and not get lost in the system.
"Time is the biggest thing in any of these cancer problems. You have to get onto it and at least diagnose it, and then you know what you're up against.
"But letting people sit and wait to see what happens is just ridiculous."
Hoffman said that he has learned from his time in the health system that it is important to pay attention to what you are told and follow up on dates given.
"I was given two to five weeks for a biopsy to be done and so when the two weeks come up, I picked the phone up."
Hoffman said he was repeatedly "lost" in the scheduling books.
"How do you lose people like that?"
"It's time. Time is the biggest thing. Originally, we used to treat the hospitals like God, and the doctors, and what they said goes.
"Well, not any more. You pick that phone up and you get what you want. If you can't get it from that guy, you pick it up and ring somebody else."
Hoffman said it is important people in the health system have empathy for other people's problems rather than just seeing them as a number in the system.
"I'm 68. People say it's young, but ... it's not good. I've got a lot of things I wanted to do, but ... I just hope that doing this can just help some people not be in my boots.
"And basically, especially young people, just get them fixed up."
