Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The attention on the Waikato ED case could increase the odds of fixing the problem

If there's any good that comes from this awful case of the man dying while waiting for help in Waikato Hospital's emergency department, it's that at least it's getting a lot of media attention.

I don't know if you recall but basically the same thing happened in 2021 at Middlemore Hospital. It was strange to me how little attention it received at the time, especially given everything else that was going wrong. There were people waiting for ambulances and dying in their doorways.

Bob Edlin: Simeon Brown applies his scalpel to the Medical Council.....

Simeon Brown applies his scalpel to the Medical Council – but Treaty ideology has spread through the health system

The Post reports:


Health Min­is­ter Simeon Brown has removed the lead­er­ship of New Zea­l­and’s med­ical reg­u­lator, accus­ing the Med­ical Coun­cil of pur­su­ing an “ideo­lo­gical agenda” and becom­ing dis­trac­ted from its core respons­ib­il­it­ies.

Bob Edlin: Health NZ wants hospital staff to be savvy about the Treaty......

Surgical equipment should be well sterilised, but Health NZ wants hospital staff to be savvy about the Treaty, too

A post on Breaking Views steered PoO to this further exposure of the Luxon Government’s failure to root out racism in the deliverance of health services.

Headlined Hospital Says Maori Patients The Most Important In New Job Description, it highlighted a broadcast on The Platform by Michael Laws:

Kerre Woodham: Funding cancer prevention is a no-brainer

You know it's an election year, don't you? You know it's an election year when Winston's fermenting merry mischief, when the leader of the opposition is happy to put himself up for an hour of questions on talkback, and when lobby groups are releasing their election wish lists.

Ryan Bridge: Who do we believe on vaping?

There's a big puffy cloud of smoke hanging over the vaping versus cigarettes debate this week.

It's all kicked off because the government's handing out free vapes to smokers to stop them getting what we know could be a death sentence.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Will Wegovy really solve everything?

I was at the movies recently and the first three ads that came up in the shorts beforehand were pretty interesting.

We had a fast food ad... I think it was KFC... some new chicken thing you can eat, then we had a Burger Fuel ad, and for dessert, to top things off, we had a Wegovy ad.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government should not fund Ozempic

The big health news today is that the WHO is essentially calling for the funding of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic for people who would otherwise not be able to afford it.

So basically, make it not just for the rich, but for the poor as well.

Bob Edlin: Is it modesty?.....

Is it modesty? Brown is coy when asked what he expected after funds and jobs were bled from Health NZ’s IT projects

When $330 million in funding was lopped from Health New Zealand digital work along with 400 staff and more than 132 IT projects – what did the Minister think would happen?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Hospital food is excessively policed

Well, I don't know what kind of psychosis has taken hold of the bureaucrats at Health New Zealand, but you want to see these rules that they've put out about the food and what food is allowed and what food is banned from the hospital cafeterias. It is ridiculously, ridiculously prescriptive.

So what they've done is they, they, they put out, because they like wasting their time on nonsense, they've put out their new national food and drink policy.
And it's divided food into three categories.

Ryan Bridge: Here we go again with the nurses strikes

If you've got an appointment at the hospital this week, you might want to check it's still going ahead.

Nurses are going on strike tomorrow from 9am for 24 hours. 4,300 surgeries and specialist appointments will be affected.

It's a complete withdrawal of labour. It's 36,000 nurses.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 7/2/25

Health NZ looks for a new head while Matt Doocey tells how he got a $10m thrill

It’s the resignation that surprised nobody.

As RNZ tells it,

Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's only a matter of time until Health NZ's boss is gone

The boss of Health NZ needs to go.

Her job is no longer tenable after the stunt that was pulled yesterday, where her management team gave a presentation to other staff proposing that the way they would save money was to cut nearly 500 doctors and nearly 1500 nurses.

It doesn't look like Margie Apa can plead ignorance or innocence on this one, because according to a source who spoke to the media outlet Newsroom, the presentation wasn’t a stunt - those cuts were actually planned.

Barry Soper: Ethnicity no longer factor in waiting list a fair outcome for all

It’s not often in this business that you can sit back with some satisfaction and feel justified a year later that a story you broke resulted in an outcome fair to all.

The formal part ethnicity played in hospital waiting lists caused a political storm.

It was justified by the then Labour Government whose Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said she was happy with the policy that gave Māori and Pasifika patients priority over Pākehā and other ethnicities.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Health NZ needs to scrap time-wasting measures

Listen, I agree with the ACT Party that Health NZ needs to drop this nonsense of encouraging staff to incorporate a prayer into their daily routine.

What is this? Are we living in the 6th century with the height of Christianity? This is very unmodern.

Now, the reason we know about this is because the ACT Party's been leaked an email that was sent to staff that says: 

"We encourage everyone to incorporate Karakia daily. To help support you with this, we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn Karakia."

Ele Ludemann: Paying for Labour’s big mistake

Labour was warned that restructuring the health system during a pandemic would be a mistake.

It was, and a very expensive one.

Like many other Labour policies, high costs went on back room increases with no improvement in frontline services.

That has to change:

Peter Dunne: Health New Zealand

When it established Health New Zealand, or Te Whatu Ora as it was then known, in July 2022 the previous government took an enormous risk that ultimately failed. It gambled that, although its planned reforms of the public health sector would take years to fully implement effectively, it would be able to demonstrate enough progress by the time of the 2023 election to satisfy voters that the reforms were broadly a step in the right direction and worth persevering with.

A.E. Thompson: It's Health New Zealand Now but the Ideology Remains Te Whatu Ora

I was made aware that Health New Zealand recently sent an email to its staff as follows:

"We encourage everyone to incorporate karakia daily. To help support you with this we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn karakia. Our resource is designed to give you some options that will enable you to learn and develop your confidence and skills. Note over time we will be adding more recordings for you to choose from."

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 15/4/24

Govt’s Wellington tunnel vision aims to ease the way to the airport (but zealous promoters of cycling will be riled)

A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements.

The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The solution to youth vaping is obvious

I'm completely puzzled about something, I'm really stumped by this.

And that is- why two Governments in a row now are pussy-footing around the vaping problem instead of just going hard and properly putting them out of the reach of kids.

The associate Health Minister, Casey Costello, has today announced a so-called crackdown on vaping, which includes banning disposal vapes.

Barrie Davis: MHA Disestablished! Yeah … Nah

Maori health authority has not been abolished. All the roles and functions of the disestablished MHA have been transferred to Health New Zealand except for a few going to the Ministry of Health. Although ‘co-governance’ has been reduced to ‘engaging’, the Iwi Māori Partnership Boards and the Hauora Maori Advisory Committee that were established with the MHA in 2022 will remain along with their funding. Of the Hauora Maori Advisory Committee, present Minister of Health, Dr Shane Reti said “I'll be powering them up to do even more.”

All the Maori Party need do is wait for the pendulum to swing in 3 to 9 years time and reinstate the co-governance provision. They could leave the transferred roles and functions within Health New Zealand, out of public perception, or maybe set up another MHA when it suits them.