General practitioners around the country are disputing claims by the Health Minister that GPs are responsible for the limited amount of testing being carried out in the country so far.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Dr David Clark said although there is a capacity at the moment to test around 3700 people per day for COVID-19, the actual number of tests is around 1800.
Dr Clark said the decision to test was largely in GPs' hands, and that they should use their clinical judgment to decide whether it was necessary or not.
But Dr Samantha Murton, president of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, says in many cases GPs are deciding to test, only to be denied because the patients don't meet criteria set by the Ministry of Health.
"For many GPs it's quite frustrating," Dr Murton told Magic Talk on Wednesday evening.
"We want to do the right thing and right thing is to test the right people, and to be able to do that and to feel like we can use our clinical judgment and say 'we think that this person is the right person'," she said.
"Because everyone - [public health expert] Michael Baker and [epidemiologist] David Skegg and all of the GP community - is worried that there is community spread but we're just not picking it up. We don't want the floodgates to open but we want to be able to test the people that we are very suspicious of."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday that the criteria for COVID-19 testing would be broadened so that anyone showing symptoms - shortness of breath, a fever and coughing - could be tested. Previously, it was necessary to show both symptoms and a link to overseas travel or a probable or confirmed case.
Dr Murton said that she had heard of many cases where doctors had judged that a patient needed a test, only to be overridden as the strict criteria was not met. In some cases, the tests were carried out but doctors were told that labs would not analyse them.
"GPs I know around the country have had cases where someone may not have travelled and they've been suspicious about it and they have been sent to a testing centre or they have sent a result through to the laboratory and we've been told no, they have to meet the criteria," Dr Murton said.
"So I would dispute that GPs aren't doing the testing, we're absolutely doing it."
Dr Murton said all facets of the healthcare system were under increased strain but casting blame didn't help.
"Getting the workforce and the gear and getting it all running smoothly has a lot of hurdles to go through and jump through, so it is a matter of everyone playing catch up all the time. And we need to be working together and not pointing the finger at anyone. I think we need to be able to say, we can do the tests, we'll do our best, and everyone else needs to be doing their best as well."
On Wednesday, Dr Clark said there were currently 35,000 test kits in the country with another 30,000 arriving this week, and more coming next week.
Experts such as Professor Michael Baker say it has been proven overseas that high levels of testing are crucial to stemming the spread of COVID-19.
The Government's decision to broaden the testing criteria is better late than never, he said.
