Public health doctors are worried the government is trying to suppress their expertise – raising alarm about what they’re describing as “overreach”.
This is nothing to do with so called expertise. This is to stop taxpayer funded lobbying, as we saw with Public Health officials trying to stop a McDonalds in Wanaka.
On Tuesday, doctors spoke on condition of anonymity to raise their concerns after a meeting earlier that day with the National Public Health Service director, Dr Nick Chamberlain.
He told those doctors that any advice they wanted to offer about issues in their regions needed sign off at a “national level”.
Some public health officials think their job is to take their taxpayer funded salary and advocate for whatever policies they like. This is ending, thank God.
Brown said he wanted medical officers of health to stop writing about issues such as fast food and “leading advocacy campaigns” on public health issues. Instead, he said their focus should be on “technical advice” and immunisation campaigns.
Absolutely. If they want to be lobbyists, they should quit their jobs and form a lobby group and seek donations for it.
Public health doctors have expertise in how social and environmental issues can impact the health of a population. They also offer expertise in how the policies of central and local government will improve or harm health.
Lots of people have expertise in particular issues. Treasury has staff with expertise on how increasing the minimum wage can lead to higher unemployment. That doesn’t mean Treasury staff are allowed to submit to every Council in NZ, advocating against living wage policies.
Brown said he was fed up with seeing doctors giving advice on issues such as fast food restaurants.
Referencing the Wānaka McDonald’s issue, which saw a medical officer submit against the resource consent for another branch of the burger giant to be built, Brown said: “Writing submissions opposing a fast-food restaurant in Wānaka, as Health NZ did last year, is not what New Zealanders expect from their health service.”
“My expectation is that Health NZ should prioritise delivering healthcare services over engaging in broader advocacy efforts. This includes the National Public Health Service which should be focused on improving immunisation rates and tackling key health challenges, rather than weighing in on where fast-food outlets should be located,” he said.
Brown said medical officers of health had an “important role in providing local technical advice”, and that would continue.
The health budget is already stretched. I am sure the vast majority of NZers want more money spent on GP access, elective surgery, EDs, medicines etc and less on lobbying councils and commissioners on resource consents.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
1 comment:
Anyone who has visited A&E knows that there are typically a lot of hospital staff standing around doing nothing.... or as the staff describe the loitering "waiting for the DR"
I recently aired my observations with a cancer patient advocate who is regularly in the hospital, and she confirmed my suspicions that the health sector has very low productivity.
She revealed Senior Drs discourage young keen Drs from working too hard. After all, an efficient public health service will reduce demand for much more lucrative private procedures.
My other observation is that most hospital staff are wonderful and trying this best in an inefficient poorly managed system. The staff will be much happier if Dr's focus their efforts on improving productivity and quality of care.... as will we!
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