health Archive

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  Bread and circuses: healthcare and ideology - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  June 24, 2009 6:14 pm - 11 Comments
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  Is making money out of sick people efficient? - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  June 23, 2009 9:22 am - 20 Comments
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  Insulating the Budget - by frog

  
  
  
  Well, it’s happened again. Budget stuff has leaked from Wellington, stealing the thunder of Greens and Tories alike ahead of tomorrow’s announcement. No one is immune, and all sorts of theories can develop about who may gain an advantage by leaking such stuff. First of all, after a thorough hop around the corridors of power, [...] read more
  May 27, 2009 5:43 pm - 23 Comments
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  What’s the real cost of intensive pig farming - by frog

  
  
  
  Not only does intensive pig farming look suspiciously like pig torture it looks like it could be the source of swine flu! What gets me is that the pig lobby argues that we need intensive farming so we have cheap pork but im guessin they don’t factor in the environmental and health costs – how [...] read more
  May 20, 2009 10:28 am - 8 Comments
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  One more down, a few thou to go - by frog

  
  
  
  ERMA today followed the EU, US and Canada and revoked approvals for the herbicide methylarsinic acid (MSMA) in New Zealand. read more
  May 14, 2009 8:16 pm - 10 Comments
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  What to do about Swine flu - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  A few years ago and the country was in the grip of Bird Flu Fever, so to speak. The Health sector was dusting off the plans from 1918 and sales of Geoffrey Rice’s excellent account of that earlier pandemic soared. It seemed like every organisation and business in the country was developing its own pandemic [...] read more
  May 1, 2009 12:08 pm - 78 Comments
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  Kevin Hague on Health - by frog

  
  
  
  Returning to my roots of many years ago, I offer you this podcast. Green MP Kevin Hague, the former CEO of the West Coast District Health Board, discusses the National Party’s direction on healthcare, or rather their lack thereof, since coming to power last year. Kevin has a unique insight because he has been on [...] read more
  March 8, 2009 10:00 am - 6 Comments
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  Cold Medicines- why not protect our children? - by frog

  
  
  
  Good on the UK authorities for ordering warning labels on cold medicines that have been linked to disastrous side effects. The warnings say that the medicines can’t be given to children under 6 and shouldn’t be given to under 12s. I think it’s really worrying that over here our Government is dithering and taking a wait [...] read more
  March 3, 2009 3:57 pm - 25 Comments
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  Ryall: headlines over healthcare? - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I’m worried that Health Minister, Tony Ryall, doesn’t seem to have made the transition yet from Opposition to the responsibilities of government. In opposition he was able to take pot shots at the Government based on populism and what he thought would be most effective in attracting headlines – an essentially political framework. Now as [...] read more
  February 26, 2009 4:45 pm - 10 Comments
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  Medical mishaps – the full story? - by frog

  
  
  
  The Government’s report yesterday on accidents in our hospitals was a start in the right direction.  Sue Kedgley has been campaigning for years to have a monitoring system set up and finally progress is being made!  This is only the second time there has been a nationwide report into hospital accidents. It’s a good start. [...] read more
  February 24, 2009 5:09 pm - 13 Comments
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  Food matters - by frog

  
  
  
  I haven’t seen this movie yet but its trailer suggests it could provoke some important debate about the links between our food industry, diet and our pharmaceutical industry. According to the website the film starts from the premise that: With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what’s [...] read more
  October 22, 2008 9:48 am - 5 Comments
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  Is voting dangerous? - by frog

  
  
  
  Freakonomics covers a some research from the Journal of the American Medical Association that argues voting may be dangerous for your health. The New York Post remarks; The study found that on average, 24 more people died in car crashes during voting hours on presidential election days than on other October and November Tuesdays. That [...] read more
  October 7, 2008 1:58 pm - 6 Comments
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  Peak oil saves lives? - by frog

  
  
  
  Sadly, as we’ve been discussing in recent weeks, peak oil is threatening people’s lives in the context of international security, war and militarism in the Middle East and other fossil fuel extracting countries.  But it seems here in New Zealand there are less people dying as the cost of burning a limited resource rises: As [...] read more
  September 9, 2008 9:13 am - 5 Comments
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  The cure all - by frog

  
  
  
  Ben Goldacre has an interesting article in the Guardian about how we try to solve many of life’s problems these days with pills. The pharmaceutical industry is in trouble: the golden age of medicine has creaked to a halt, the low-hanging fruit of medical research has all been harvested, and the industry is rapidly running [...] read more
  September 3, 2008 10:43 am - 8 Comments
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  Can broccoli cure cancer? - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about the Greens’ food policies here in recent months.  Mostly when I do it is about the consumer rights to know and choose, the economic and environmental impacts of multinational industrial food versus locally grown and produced, and the need for people to have access to affordable [...] read more
  July 22, 2008 3:43 pm - 24 Comments
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  Aerial 1080 on the West Coast - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  West Coasters are fighting off a massive aerial 1080 drops over their homes and water supplies – you might have seen them on TV in the past few weeks. The drops is an Animal Health Board program for controlling Tb (by killing off possums, which are a Tb vector). I visited the Coast last week, [...] read more
  July 21, 2008 12:01 pm - 47 Comments
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  Study: As petrol prices rise, auto deaths fall - by frog

  
  
  
  Today’s high gasoline prices could cut auto deaths by nearly a third as driving decreases, particularly among price-sensitive teenage drivers, the authors of a new study say. Professors Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama and David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School found that for every 10% increase in gas prices there was a 2.3% [...] read more
  July 17, 2008 9:25 am - 10 Comments
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  Kevin Hague – Green Candidate Number 7 - by frog

  
  
  
  Luckily someone managed to capture on video some of the speeches that high ranked Green candidates gave at the Green Party conference a month ago.  here’s the first of them; Kevin Hague, Green Party candidate for West Coast Tasman and number 7 on the party list. Currently Kevin is the Chief Executive of the West [...] read more
  July 4, 2008 8:06 am - 9 Comments
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  21,000 warmer state homes - by frog

  
  
  
  Housing New Zealand owns and maintains about 68,600 houses throughout New Zealand.  Many of these properties were built before 1978, prior to insulation becoming mandatory. Many of these homes have poor or no insulation and inefficient heating such as open fires. Housing New Zealand has been running a programme to progressively retrofit uninsulated state homes with [...] read more
  May 15, 2008 1:59 pm - 30 Comments
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  Toxic cosmetics - by frog

  
  
  
  Currently cosmetics in New Zealand don’t have to say what chemicals and toxins they contain. In the USA the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found that many major brands of lipstick contained lead – Lead is a poison that can cause learning and behavioral problems, reduced brain development, infertility and miscarriage. One-third of the tested lipsticks [...] read more
  March 11, 2008 2:41 pm - 4 Comments