Call it coincidence or not but on the day I publish an essay questioning the state of the nation’s health, the country’s most watched TV programme features consecutive stories on .. people being sick.
The first one outlined the dreadful number with some form of respiratory ailment, like asthma. The new statistic is one in five. Yep, twenty percent of us sometimes struggle with respiratory disease, a number up from fifteen percent only two years ago.
Simon Mercer’s report for 1 News discussed only one possible reason for the increase - unhealthy homes. For a reporter of Mercer’s experience that’s a cop out. There are far more complex reasons than cold and damp homes for our breathing difficulties, and can we seriously believe that everyone with asthma lives in a substandard home?
It doesn’t take long to find there are multiple likely causes of asthma like allergies, family history and exposure to tobacco smoke. This story was about the statistics so there was no time to investigate possible causes of this increase. Therefore the snarky jab at landlords being able to declare their properties healthy was unnecessary and unhelpful. But hey, any old chance for 1 News to bash the government eh?
Next up on the news, the issue of schools having difficulty finding relief teachers - to cover sick leave.
This year the number of sick days reported by the country’s teachers is 265,483. Last year there were 214,835, so it’s an increase of about 23 percent.
The report didn’t even bother to ask why teachers have so many days off sick. The angle was about having - shock, horror - unregistered former teachers possibly coming in to cover the sick days.
But surely it’s a question for somebody or some organisation to be asking - why are teachers off sick so often? Is the Ministry of Education considering the problem? Are school boards? Are teachers really sick or are they just using the system for a paid day off?
Aren’t they questions worth knowing answers to?
Thinking about those stories on TV reminded me of recent work by Dr Ursula Edgington PhD, an educationalist and sociologist. Through the Official Information Act, she’s unearthed some staggering sick leave numbers from a few government entities.
Medsafe, where the number of staff fluctuates between 70 and 80, had a 58 percent increase in sick leave from 2019/20 to 2021/22. Dr Edgington produced a graph suggesting the number of sick days taken in the 2020 year was around 275. Two years later that number had ballooned to about 445 and last year remained over 450.
Over at the Ministry of Transport, where there’s 180 staff, there were 639 sick leave days taken in 2020. In 2022 that number exploded to 1862 and last year remained crazily high at 1842, as well as a further 809 days taken by staff as leave without pay.
I have one small personal experience of sick workers. My car was at the panelbeaters recently (don’t ask why) and I was told the repair job would take about a week and a half. At the end of the second week the workshop called to say there would be a delay because two of the three panelbeaters in the company had been off sick for a week. My car came back in the middle of the third week. (Great repair job, by the way.)
These are but anecdotal snapshots of various workforces. But they reinforce what I was writing about yesterday. We are not an especially healthy nation and don’t seem to care that we get sick so often.
Isn’t it time we started to care? How can the country’s economy flourish with a workforce that is ill so often? Why is there not more advice about staying fit and healthy, and more people putting that advice into practice?
I just hope we’re not a nation of hypochondriacs and piss takers. That new ten day sick leave provision brought in by the last Labour government won’t have done much for workplace attendance among the less motivated.
Is anyone at the Ministry ofSickness Health listening?
All I hear is crickets.
PS: The headline for this piece is inspired by an inscription on the great Spike Milligan’s headstone: Duirt me leat raibh me breoite which is Irish for “I told you I was ill.”
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
It doesn’t take long to find there are multiple likely causes of asthma like allergies, family history and exposure to tobacco smoke. This story was about the statistics so there was no time to investigate possible causes of this increase. Therefore the snarky jab at landlords being able to declare their properties healthy was unnecessary and unhelpful. But hey, any old chance for 1 News to bash the government eh?
Next up on the news, the issue of schools having difficulty finding relief teachers - to cover sick leave.
This year the number of sick days reported by the country’s teachers is 265,483. Last year there were 214,835, so it’s an increase of about 23 percent.
The report didn’t even bother to ask why teachers have so many days off sick. The angle was about having - shock, horror - unregistered former teachers possibly coming in to cover the sick days.
But surely it’s a question for somebody or some organisation to be asking - why are teachers off sick so often? Is the Ministry of Education considering the problem? Are school boards? Are teachers really sick or are they just using the system for a paid day off?
Aren’t they questions worth knowing answers to?
Thinking about those stories on TV reminded me of recent work by Dr Ursula Edgington PhD, an educationalist and sociologist. Through the Official Information Act, she’s unearthed some staggering sick leave numbers from a few government entities.
Medsafe, where the number of staff fluctuates between 70 and 80, had a 58 percent increase in sick leave from 2019/20 to 2021/22. Dr Edgington produced a graph suggesting the number of sick days taken in the 2020 year was around 275. Two years later that number had ballooned to about 445 and last year remained over 450.
Over at the Ministry of Transport, where there’s 180 staff, there were 639 sick leave days taken in 2020. In 2022 that number exploded to 1862 and last year remained crazily high at 1842, as well as a further 809 days taken by staff as leave without pay.
I have one small personal experience of sick workers. My car was at the panelbeaters recently (don’t ask why) and I was told the repair job would take about a week and a half. At the end of the second week the workshop called to say there would be a delay because two of the three panelbeaters in the company had been off sick for a week. My car came back in the middle of the third week. (Great repair job, by the way.)
These are but anecdotal snapshots of various workforces. But they reinforce what I was writing about yesterday. We are not an especially healthy nation and don’t seem to care that we get sick so often.
Isn’t it time we started to care? How can the country’s economy flourish with a workforce that is ill so often? Why is there not more advice about staying fit and healthy, and more people putting that advice into practice?
I just hope we’re not a nation of hypochondriacs and piss takers. That new ten day sick leave provision brought in by the last Labour government won’t have done much for workplace attendance among the less motivated.
Is anyone at the Ministry of
All I hear is crickets.
PS: The headline for this piece is inspired by an inscription on the great Spike Milligan’s headstone: Duirt me leat raibh me breoite which is Irish for “I told you I was ill.”
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
11 comments:
Jibby jab connection anyone?
'Aren’t they questions worth knowing answers to?'
Yes, but find someone to ask because the MSM sure will not and it seems the public service cares not either.
Until someone with some proficiency in the brain department and some courage to ask (in the face of a cancel culture) then nothing will change and no doubt it will get worse.......
It basically equates to the new 10 day sick leave . Another sad realisation of Labour Party contempt and abuse.
You are more likely to get covid if you take the jabs , since they damages your natural immunity..
I have family members that now, since 2020 get sick often with virus, flu, type illnesses. One even gets tested for Covid so it's Covid.
Couldn't possibly be the vax. No.
(Inadvertantly I pressed publish on above post prematurely).
Because people had it slammed into their brains over n over again not to go to work sick....if you have a cough dont go....if you have a sniffle dont go....etc....it could be covid...test test test. Dont infect other people you could kill them. And now because noone seems capable of thinking for themselves they just keep doing it. Its taken me ages to retrain my kids in regards to this.
In simple terms, one of my past employments, was associated with the Medical World, pre Hospital. New Zealand has always had either people with respiratory issues, many that could be traced to their childhood, a growing population that either had in later years developed a respiratory issue, from either a work related instances - asbestos, Legionnaire's disease, exposure to toxic chemical fumes in the workplace (no face mask being worn) - the other was a cold damp homes, sadly older State Housing homes, filled this domain. Children going to school during winter months, when raining, wearing no water proof clothing, including hats. This last group would surface late at night or early hours of morning - end up in the hospital A&E and depending on severity of presentation- be "classified as having Asthma", which would require them to transition to medication for that medical issue.
The Elderly, with the diagnosed - Emphysema - when failing to manage, always ended up in A&E - reason - required - re-evaluation of medical condition, medication, and home life, - that being able to manage at home.
Then add the Adult - who gets a cold, fails to manage it better, ends up in an Ambulance then A&E. What follows is - sick leave that adds to their workplace staffing issues.
It is an "age old issue", and it will not get any better.
NZ’s sickness is probably best explained by sedentary lifestyles, alcohol, vaping and eating crap.
I bet respiratory rates are also linked to the fact too many NZers are fat, have heart disease &/or diabetes.
People claim eating well is expensive, yet those same people can afford MCDs & KFC etc, both of which are very expensive per serve compared to a home cooked meal, a pie for breakfast instead of porridge, cheap cola instead of free water, & a bag of potato chips instead of much cheaper & more filling apple or banana.
And it’s not lack of education either, just sheer laziness encouraged by govts held over a barrel by big alcohol, big tobacco (who of course made sure they owned the vape brands) & big food & beverage lobbyists.
The reality is, staying well requires effort which, like educating our kids, seems to be too much effort for some people.
My solution: scrap universal health, revert to user pays like Europe so those of us prepared to make the effort are not paying (taxes & waitlists) for those who aren’t.
Labour and the jab.
Peter, I’m sure everything can be sorted with just a few more Covid jabs. Jacinda would surely agree.
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