I’ve worked in most segments of the NZ healthcare system including public hospitals (inpatient, outpatient, rehab and home health), private hospitals, rest homes, retirement villages and private physiotherapy practice. I often find both in my professional life and my personal life that many people struggle to navigate the healthcare system. I have come to find that in a health crisis or challenge due to the numerous cogs and wheels that are in process in the healthcare system that it is almost inevitable to have problems, challenges, and frustrations during your experience of the healthcare system. Please know this is not to be harsh or complaining of the system. I just seem to find that in a stressful situation where your health matters and time is often of the essence (even when you aren’t requiring urgent A&E attention, you still want answers and solutions in a timely manner) that there will be inevitable challenges. These challenges could be things like difficulty parking, miscommunications in bookings, misplaced documents, and delays in appointments (which results in sore bottoms from hard seats) and so and so forth. The following are observations of useful actions, strategies and ideas that I’ve seen to be useful whilst navigating the healthcare system. My hope is that it will be useful to you or your loved one. Please be aware that there are so many different ways of using these strategies and I want you to continue to be your fabulous self, your amazing sparkling individual self so I do not wish to suggest you need to change your personality. However, I do suggest you find your own individual way of being able to achieve the following (even if it means recruiting your loved ones help you achieve this).

Ask questions of your healthcare team, get the reply and if you need to keep asking the questions and keep seeking answers!

• People facing a cancer diagnosis and healthcare system journey often have a complexity of care, a range of different symptoms and side effects that can occur. Having good conversations with your medical team is essential to feeling confident with your medical care and knowing that they understand what is important to you. Tell your healthcare team what is happening in your life or with your symptoms even if it may not seem relevant – give your healthcare team the whole picture including the meaningful functional activities that you are finding difficult. This can really help pick up on ways of making your life better and finding the right support for you.

• You can always ask for a second opinion (sometimes in certain environments you can just go and get a second opinion without asking).  

• Be willing to pause (even if briefly) before making big decisions so that you can take a moment to process the decision.

• Know your team. Part of this is knowing the phone numbers of your healthcare team and who to call if you have a problem or question.

• Where appropriate for you and your family, consider having a support person with you for key appointments. This person can be useful in many ways – as a second pair of eyes and ears and therefore this person can ask different questions to what you might have thought to ask. A second person can help guide you emotionally and be that hand you need to hold at the perfect time.

• Utilise your support network for things like transport to and from appointments and food deliveries to hospital wards (for you or for your support person who hasn’t wanted to leave your side and is now really hungry).

• On a practical note try to avoid becoming hungry, too tired or bored in waiting rooms - it might mean pre-planning (think pillows, picnic lunch and a good book).

I hope these ideas can support you to a) understand what is happening with your healthcare and why and all sorts of other questions answered and b) allow you to have strategies to support you with dealing with the inevitable challenges, frustrations, delays that are likely to occur. Finally, I hope you can feel empowered and confident as you navigate your healthcare journey.