Insights From Social Media

Victoria Slapper writes > Some of you may have had a text from the Labour party over the last few days who is rubbishing the NZ Health system. They are blaming this government for not having enough health care workers and the health system in disarray.

I have a story to tell.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government is in Trouble over Dunedin Hospital

When it comes to the Dunedin hospital scale back, the Government's in trouble on this.

That protest over the weekend was big. 35,000 people is more than a quarter of Dunedin's population.

If you assume they came from all over the region, which is probably true given the hospital would service the Otago region, it’s still big. It’s 14% of the population.

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.

Tim Dower: Do we need more A&Es?

Really interested in this Medical Journal piece about emergency departments.

The impression we often get is they're horribly overcrowded, patients lying in corridors for hours in agony, constant panic stations.

Friday and Saturday nights are bedlam, we're told: drunks staggering around the place, people unleashing their stress and anger at the staff.

Kerre Woodham: A breath of fresh air for our health system

As Mike Hosking and I exchanged morning pleasantries today, I said to him “Wasn't Dr Shane Reti a breath of fresh air?”

“Breath of fresh air?” said Mike, “He was a howling Nor Westerly of fresh air!”

Tim Beveridge: How do we prevent ourselves from relying on the health system?

I’ve gotta be honest with you that I’m feeling a little punch drunk digesting the latest stories and statistics about our health system under pressure.

So, bear with me while I throw a few stats at you, just to package it all up.

Dave Witherow: Medical Initiatives

Is private enterprise a lost cause these days?  Sometimes it seems so – especially since the Jacinda junta scuppered so many small businesses during the late great Covid panic. And it’s no better now, with half the country on some kind of benefit and the best brains moving to Australia.

Years ago, before New Zealand became a lefty paradise, I thought of opening a pub. Why not? Pubs are civilized places – bastions of   intelligence and good-humour, and, of course, private enterprise. And and since I was already spending a lot of my time in pubs I thought why not combine pleasure with the useful bonus of an income? But between breath-testing, random-stopping, and the demonization of the drinking classes, I decided there was no future in that.

Ian Powell: Our scary public hospital crisis+

On 9 February 2023, TVNZ’s 1News revealed some data that should alarm us all: that our hospitals had hit 100% occupancy more than 600 times in 2022. That is, on average, each day, roughly two public hospitals around the country were running at an occupancy higher than they were resourced for.

If anyone doubts that our public hospitals are in crisis, this fact alone removes any doubt. Arguably it is worse than crisis – it’s a scary crisis +!

John MacDonald: How do you rate the Government's health workforce plan?

How much faith do you have in the Government’s big announcement that it’s finally going to do something about the critical shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professionals?

My quick answer is “not much”. Especially when you consider that it may not be around after October 14.

Current forecasts say we will need nearly 13,000 extra nurses and more than 5,000 more doctors within a decade.

Cam Slater: The Health System Is in Chaos

This Labour Government promoted itself as the most open and transparent government ever. It was, of course, a slogan, nothing more. The reality is that this Government is dishonest, dissembling, disingenuous, and duplicitous. This is particularly egregious regarding OIA responses, even landing minister Jan Tinetti before the powerful Privileges Committee of Parliament.

The latest shenanigans regarding OIA requests have shown that Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ are one of the worst offenders, so much so that they’ve been ticked off by the Ombudsman’s office:

Francesca Rudkin: Enough of the sideshows, let's get on with the real issues

If you want to see a good cross section of a city, sit in the emergency department at the local hospital for 5 hours.

I did this on Thursday evening after my son’s cold led to a chest infection.

Due of the thick protective glass in reception, we needed to speak loudly to explain our situation to staff. After answering their questions I felt the whole reception area knew all about us and what was up. So I wasn’t exactly eavesdropping over the next few hours as others arrived and shared their stories, but it was both an interesting distraction from the long wait and a glimpse into their lives.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm so disappointed in Rob Campbell

I am so disappointed to hear Rob Campbell finally admitting that the health system is in crisis.

He said it this morning in a round of interviews talking about his speech last night, which was all about him slamming the health reforms.

He said the new health system is in a "crisis situation".  

Yes, it is in crisis. We can all see that. So why didn’t he say that when he was still in charge of the health system? 

Kate Hawkesby: In a first-world country we should be able to expect a decent health service, not 'adequate'

As my son marched off for a lung X-ray for a chest infection yesterday, I wondered just how dire the health system was going to get this winter. 

As the weather starts to cool, many are picking up change-of-season coughs and colds and when I look at what happened in post-Covid winters overseas, I worry about how bad it might get here too. 

Health NZ says it’s ‘bracing’ for a tough winter. But it’s not just sickness that may come our way which is worrying, but our ability to cope with it. There is the state of our hospitals, the workforce of frontline health workers, the shortage of nurses, the overworked doctors and the lack of GP’s in many regions.

Ian Powell: What happens when a health minister loses workforce trust and confidence

On 4 July Stuff published my opinion piece on the angry behaviour of Minister of Health Andrew Little in publicly disparaging dedicated people and organisations strongly committed to the provision of accessible quality healthcare: Health Minister’s angry behaviour denying the obvious.

I referred to his derogatory comments on the “nominal leaders” of primary care (essentially general practice representatives), rural general practice ownership, New Zealand’s pharmaceutical purchasing agency Pharmac, Waikato emergency medicine specialist Dr John Bonning (also President of the Australia and New Zealand College of Emergency Medicine), and finally the NZ Nurses Association (NZNO).

HDPA: Andrew Little is having a laugh pretending he didn't know about health system woes

 

Andrew Little has got to be having a laugh if he’s trying to pretend he didn’t know our health system was going to melt down like it is at the moment.

Because that’s essentially what his office is trying to do. 

They’re claiming they didn’t know about a letter that was sent a year ago warning of exactly this.

In that letter, the DHBs asked the Government to fix the immigration system so they could get overseas workers in and so they wouldn’t lose migrant staff back overseas.

Ian Powell: Is the health system an electoral Sword of Damocles for Labour?

The legend of the Sword of Damocles – about the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power – is relevant to voters in the 2023 general election, when they contemplate the Labour government’s stewardship of the health system.

In 2017 the Labour-led Government inherited a health system in crisis, with severe workforce shortages.

While this was an inherited, the Government has largely ignored it. Workforce shortages now range between ⅕th to ¼ depending on the occupational group. Even before the pandemic these shortages were impacting severely on access to planned surgery and other treatments, overcrowded emergency departments, availability of hospital beds, and compromised capacity to diagnose patients in a clinically timely manner.

Covid-19 accelerated this, but did not cause it.

The Government’s response was transparently pathetic. In 2018 it trumpeted the formation of a committee; in fact, it was a reconstituted committee with less authority than its predecessor.