Is Student Health worth it?

Anyone that has required the assistance of a health professional knows how draining it can be financially. One of the perks of being a student is the entitlement to health and counselling subsidises and free health services. However, recent research suggests that saving your pennies and using these services may not be worth it. 

In a recent online survey, students were asked to share their thoughts on our current Student Health System. 100% of the 36 students that responded were disappointed with their experiences and agreed that the Student Health Services were operating below-par.  

The Student Health Service administrators from all three Massey campuses were given a chance to have their say, however they declined this opportunity.  

One Massey student says, “I don’t want to know the total amount of money I spent on multiple visits seeing doctors at Massey to not be taken seriously. I spent less on one session with a private GP and got to the bottom of my issues.”   

“My doctor said that I was complaining too much as I had come to him many times about some stomach issues. I was talking to him at an appointment about another issue that could perhaps be related to my stomach and he told me to ‘shhh!’ and said that if I wanted to talk about another issue then I had to come back and pay for another appointment. It turns out a few weeks later I ended up going to hospital and was diagnosed with advanced endometriosis. Because the doctor didn’t listen to me it got worse, and it all could have been prevented a bit if he had listened to me. Massey doctors do not have the students best interest at heart, they are just there to do their job but they have no compassion,” says another anonymous student.  

“Something was wrong with my stomach, it was really sore and could not digest things. I tried to book with the Student Health but it took ages. I tried to go to campus for emergency support and got declined from the service and was asked to book for other date. So I went to Urgent After Hour clinic at Basin Reserve. The doctor there said I could have died due to appendix inflation, and that I required for operation,” says another student. 

“I was an international student at Toi Whakaari 2017-2018, and because the school doesn’t have any clinical facilities of their own, we were told to go down the street to Massey. Now, because I wasn’t a domestic student, theoretically I wasn’t entitled to domestic rates, yet the nurses at Massey could never make up their mind about how much to charge me. Sometimes it would be the domestic $30-$40-ish, other times it would be the $60-$70-ish international students had to pay. Any time I needed care, it was anyone’s guess about how much I’d be paying out of pocket.”  

As well as feeling ignored and confused by doctors, many students have received shocking advice from professionals working in the Student Health Services.    

“When I went to student health, I wanted to start acne medication again (which I took throughout high-school), but the doctor told me I should instead buy more expensive makeup,” says an anonymous student.  

“I went to Student Health seeking antidepressants or some kind of mental health help, and got told to just go outside more. Heaps of people I know have had similar experiences,” says another student.  

“I once went to a doctor at student health, and even though she was otherwise very kind to me, she told me that I would grow out of my asexuality because I explained I only wanted birth control to stop periods and acne.”  

Experiences like these are not a one off, and are not only occurring at Massey University. Student Health Services across New Zealand are notoriously underfunded and understaffed, and it is stories like these that call for a change.