By any reasonable measure, New Zealand’s health system is broken, and nothing screams that louder than Health New Zealand actively considering sending women with gynaecological cancer to Australia for treatment.
Gynaecological cancers make up one in ten cancer cases among Kiwi women. We’re not talking about some rare condition with low demand. These are critical, life-threatening illnesses - cervical, ovarian, and endometrial cancers - and the system responsible for caring for our mothers, daughters, sisters and wives is on the brink of collapse.
Simply because their aren’t enough specialists left in the country. At one point, Wellington had zero gynaecological oncologists. That’s the capital city of New Zealand, not a remote outpost, left without a single specialist to perform surgeries on women with cancer. The remaining handful of experts are already overworked and based in Christchurch and Auckland. Now, over 100 women from central NZ will be forced to fly to Christchurch for treatment.
A woman with cancer in Whanganui or Hawke’s Bay might now need to catch a plane just to access surgery. If that doesn’t scream third-world healthcare, what does?
Health NZ even went as far as investigating how much it would cost to send women across the Tasman for surgery. That is how stretched the system is. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the Christchurch team is hanging on by a thread, putting in insane hours and sacrificing their own wellbeing to plug the gap.
The workforce crisis has been years in the making. Of the last eight New Zealand-trained gynae-oncology specialists, seven left for jobs in Australia. Why? Better pay, better conditions, and less stress. Who can blame them? Meanwhile, the pipeline of new specialists is a trickle. Some are likely heading for early retirement.
Health Minister Simeon Brown says no women have been sent to Australia yet, and that there’s a plan in place. But that plan involves flying doctors up and down the country and rationing services, literally prioritising the highest-risk patients because we can’t meet demand.
The failure isn’t just clinical. It’s political. Brown blames Labour’s health restructure for creating the mess, and Labour blames the current Government’s cuts for making it worse.
Meanwhile, New Zealand women are being told to wait, fly across the country, or potentially cross international borders to receive care they should get in their own hospital.
You know the health system is stuffed when we’re seriously weighing up trans-Tasman medical tourism for basic cancer surgery.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced
A woman with cancer in Whanganui or Hawke’s Bay might now need to catch a plane just to access surgery. If that doesn’t scream third-world healthcare, what does?
Health NZ even went as far as investigating how much it would cost to send women across the Tasman for surgery. That is how stretched the system is. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because the Christchurch team is hanging on by a thread, putting in insane hours and sacrificing their own wellbeing to plug the gap.
The workforce crisis has been years in the making. Of the last eight New Zealand-trained gynae-oncology specialists, seven left for jobs in Australia. Why? Better pay, better conditions, and less stress. Who can blame them? Meanwhile, the pipeline of new specialists is a trickle. Some are likely heading for early retirement.
Health Minister Simeon Brown says no women have been sent to Australia yet, and that there’s a plan in place. But that plan involves flying doctors up and down the country and rationing services, literally prioritising the highest-risk patients because we can’t meet demand.
The failure isn’t just clinical. It’s political. Brown blames Labour’s health restructure for creating the mess, and Labour blames the current Government’s cuts for making it worse.
Meanwhile, New Zealand women are being told to wait, fly across the country, or potentially cross international borders to receive care they should get in their own hospital.
You know the health system is stuffed when we’re seriously weighing up trans-Tasman medical tourism for basic cancer surgery.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced
9 comments:
Good people are leaving, not only for better money, but as a pushback against the mandatory introduction of all things Maori, that will do absolutely nothing to improve well being.
Don't forget, you could have a Harvard MD, six years' residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (one of the best training hospitals in the world)... but be told you are not qualified to practice in NZ and/or need pay a big licensing fee and take a 50% pay cut and answer to numerous health bureaucrats all to work in this great country!
I totally disagree with the author. First of all if I had cancer and was told that I will start my treatment next week in Canberra; I would be on that plane. Secondly, I believe that health tourism is the answer for the New Zealand health system. A hip replacement in Mumbai is far cheaper than it would cost in New Zealand; there is no waiting list in India; the patient gets back to a normal life sooner; it would cut our waiting lists for procedures in NZ; and it would create competition in the market. It’s a no brainer. Why hasn’t Simeon thought about it.
“New Zealand’s health system is broken”.
New Zealand, like other captured collective west countries, has been “deliberately broken” by foreign agents working within what now passes as a "democratic government".
It is women now being sent to Australia for cancer treatment. Ten years or more ago, men were sent to Australia for cancer treatment for the likes of testicular cancer. Seems our health system has been in dire straits more decades.
I’ve recently paid for my knee replacement, after years of waiting to make it onto the ‘list’. Life was passing me by.
Previously I’d been sent to a nutrition and drugs presentation for helping with arthritis. The nutritionalist spent the first 5 mins giving her family history in maori, perhaps one, maybe two of the 20 people present would have understood what she was saying. She then spent up to 2 minutes giving the english version translation of her very ordinary european family and upbringing (had obviously just done a course) before educating us on diet.
The pharmacist just said take more drugs, don’t put up with pain. When asked about the long term effects of constant drug taking she just shrugged.
Then I was sent on a physiotherapy course showing me what exercises I could do to improve my condition. All participants of the course were European. I was already doing these exercises myself being a proactive female, but I do think it’s an excellent option along the journey to knee replacement.
My surgery payment includes $4000 GST. I have paid taxes, contributed to the Health Departments budget for 50 years. So to have to pay more tax for an operation I expected to be done in the public health system is a disgrace. I should be able to claim that part of the cost back, if not more.
The employment market for medical specialists is a global one, so NZ is competing with not only Australia but also countries like Qatar - at least double the pay, no tax, lots of fringe benefits.........
Under Labour, with their He Puapua ideals, with a separate health system for Maori and The Rest, would Maori women only have been prioritized for surgery ?
Labour finally admitted that the algorithms had been adjusted to make that happen.
Labour are playing God, using the sequence of arrival in NZ as the criteria for living or dying.
Justify that will you Hipkins , and fellow Labour supporters ?
NZ is a sad and sorry country now days. Actively encouraging my builder, 2 x teachers, police officer, and nurse family to move to the lucky country as fast as possible.
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