New Zealand paediatric respiratory stock-take survey

Tamariki (children) in Aotearoa New Zealand suffer high rates of respiratory morbidity. There are also geographic, socio-economic and ethnicity inequities, with tamariki Māori and Pacific children, experiencing the highest rates. Our aim was to survey New Zealand respiratory health services and identify gaps in delivery.

We invited health practitioners from all districts to respond to an online survey and separately contacted individuals known to deliver paediatric respiratory care. We included medical, nursing and allied health staff and collated responses.

There were 23 responses from 17 hospitals. Respiratory- and sleep-specialist senior medical officers (SMOs) were employed in only three major centres. Full time equivalent (FTE) for paediatricians with an interest (PWI) in respiratory care was evenly distributed with low numbers reported in the Northern region, Wellington and Canterbury. Senior nurse FTE was fairly constant across the country, except in the Northern region. Allied health staffing was inconsistent across the country with many districts in the Te Manawa Taki region reporting little or no respiratory physiotherapy staffing. More than half of districts reported limited or no access to videofluoroscopic swallow studies. There is poor access to chest computed tomography (CT) scanning under general anaesthetic in more than half of centres.

Despite high levels of respiratory disease and morbidity, with serious disparities, there is inadequate staffing and provision of services. There is an urgent need for better co-ordination of care but a lack of both national and regional frameworks despite respiratory health being a current health target.