health Archive

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  Raising the driving age?

  
  
  
  A Herald survey of 2,300 people has shown that 80% favour raising the driving age to 18. It’s hard to work out how representative that survey truly is but 80% seems unbelievably high. Raising the age to 18 would be a huge step up from the current age of 15. It’s more likely the government will raise [...] read more
  January 11, 2010 9:58 am - 34 Comments
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  Cell towers keep appearing without consultation

  
  
  
  Every week someone contacts me about an unwanted cell tower, mast or antennae, that are being erected near to where they live. Last week I got a call from a woman in Herne Bay, Auckland – who had discovered that a cell phone mast was about to be erected on a telephone pole outside her home. She [...] read more
  November 30, 2009 3:50 pm - 10 Comments
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  What’s in a number?

  
  
  
  For those working in the health sector a general election tends to bring a frisson of apprehension: will the positive momentum built with the current structure be, as usual, swept away by the political wind of structural change? The Minister’s “razor gang” review of the health sector recommends splitting the Ministry of Health in two [...] read more
  September 27, 2009 9:00 am - 2 Comments
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  Labtests problems no surprise

  
  
  
  One of the issues dominating newspaper headlines over the past several weeks has been the performance of Labtests, the new provider of medical laboratory services in the Auckland region. We’ve heard about long waiting times for tests, long waiting times for urgent lab test results, difficulties in accessing testing facilities and errors in tests conducted [...] read more
  September 24, 2009 1:41 pm - 3 Comments
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  Primary Health Care must be a priority

  
  
  
  The Government’s announcement that they are moving to achieve the unrealised goals of the Primary Health Care Strategy needs to be taken with a grain of salt. So far the National Government has virtually ignored primary health and in some areas actively undermined it – so while  it would normally be great news to hear that [...] read more
  September 4, 2009 12:28 pm - 28 Comments
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  Don’t shoot the messenger

  
  
  
  National’s tactics in the House this week, first from Health Minister Tony Ryall, and then from his Associate-Minister Jonathan Coleman (acting in Ryall’s absence) were to attempt to divert attention away from my questions about their privatisation agenda in Health by attacking the questioner (me). ‘Shooting the messenger’ is a classic case of the kind of [...] read more
  July 30, 2009 2:34 pm - 15 Comments
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  Outsourcing Health No Solution

  
  
  
  While the Government intends to increase DHB contracting with the private sector, we should instead first assess what capacity we have in the public sector; with proper logistics planning the public hospitals can do more work. Neither the Minister of Health nor the Ministry of Health has been able, under questioning at the Health Select Committee, [...] read more
  July 25, 2009 9:00 am - 58 Comments
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  No will in NZ to phase out wonky flouro food

  
  
  
  Last night TV3’s 60 minute program looked at the issue of food colourings and whether or not they affect children’s behaviour. While the experiments used in the item were not scientific the research that prompted the kiwi journalists to highlight this issue caused shockwaves when it was released in the United Kingdom in 2007. The research – [...] read more
  June 30, 2009 2:27 pm - 12 Comments
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  Bread and circuses: healthcare and ideology

  
  
  
  The Health Select Committee today heard evidence from the NZ Surgical Hospitals Association (essentially the private hospitals club). Essentially they were pitching for Government to contract more elective surgery to them and also to encourage more New Zealanders to take out private health insurance, by giving tax breaks for this. One unexpected feature of their evidence [...] read more
  June 24, 2009 6:14 pm - 11 Comments
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  Is making money out of sick people efficient?

  
  
  
  In a cautionary tale the New Yorker explores the effect of organising health care around making money. “It finds that costlier care is often worse care….” This article looks at why some towns have much higher health care costs than others. It finds that higher costs are driven by health providers seeking to make a profit [...] read more
  June 23, 2009 9:22 am - 20 Comments