Our National Arthritis Advocacy Network is gaining members and momentum. As we gear up for the election we ask you to join others with arthritis to ask for government action.
You can add your voice to those who have already written to MPs or shared their story - like the person below who has written to Labour Health Spokesperson Ayesha Verral and given permission to share their story...
I am writing to share my own experience, because I believe it shows exactly why this issue needs urgent, long-term attention. I have suffered from severe osteoarthritis for the past ten years. For most of that time, my visits to the GP resulted in little more than pain medication and advice to exercise and lose weight. That advice was given year after year, even as my condition steadily worsened and even though, in hindsight, surgery was always going to be necessary. I do not believe I was taken seriously early enough, and I have been left to wonder how much of my decline over the last decade could have been prevented had I been referred for specialist assessment sooner.
Today my quality of life has been reduced dramatically. I can no longer walk in my own backyard. I cannot manage basic cleaning or housework. Even mild stretching with resistance bands, recommended to me as exercise, leaves me in worse pain. I am permanently reliant on crutches and a wheelchair, and I can no longer leave the house effectively without help. After years of pushing for it myself, I have finally been assessed by an orthopaedic surgeon and placed on the public waiting list for a double knee replacement – but I now face a further ten month wait for the surgery I believe should have happened years ago. I am sharing this not for sympathy, but because I know I am not the only person with arthritis who has been let down by long delays in being heard, assessed and treated.
What can you do?
- Join the network today so your voice can be heard [link to form on website]. We’ll send you information on what the Network is doing.
- Write to the Minister of Health and members of the Health Select Committee link here. The inclusion of your personal experience can demonstrate the need for timely diagnosis and better services.
- Copy us into your email at info@arthritis.org.nz so we can follow up.
With your help, we’ll show MPs and candidates that we need to work together in a cross-party alliance to improve the lives of people with arthritis. We desperately need a long-term plan for this long-term condition.
