On the whole we do have a very good public health system in new Zealand, mainly thanks to the hard working nurses and doctors who ignore the politicians and get no with their hard jobs often under difficult circumstances. My opinion is there is quite a lot of wastage in some feel good vote catching areas that could be diverted back to the core activities. Until the core activities are running like a well oiled machine our major focus should be on them.

We have the basic structure in place for the best health system in the world. That structure is:

1. A publicly funded health system where there is universal and equal access.
2. A no fault ACC system where rehabilitation can be achieved AND we can all learn from errors and breakdowns in communication in order to improve long term outcomes.

These two systems guarantee the cooperation and goodwill of the health professions. For example imagine being a dedicated health professional and saying you can’t come here because you can’t afford it!

We need to work with that framework to improve the obvious glaring deficiencies we have now – such as the highly politicised nature of the system, self interest and lack of transparency, difficulty in recruiting and retaining the best health professionals and lack of capital expenditure in modern technological medicine.

Send any health profesional our way to give their perspective. We are willing to listen and certainly don’t think the bean counters have delivered the promised results. The answer is to try to get the dog wagging the tail again, with the help of the bean counters, not the other way round.

Despite having had a telephone call, a fax and advanced notice of this it was not until 4am the next morning that the staff at Starship was able to attend to us. In that time we had migrated from a waiting room to an ER. Ranging from polite inquiries towards a full blown explosion around 3am, they kept on informing me we were on the list and would be seen as soon as a doctor was available.

Now ask yourself. Meningicoccal disease. Emergency declared by first level of medical staff seen. Would it not make sense to actually prioritize or perform basic Triage on these types of things?

The second case that comes to mind is that of my father. He had heart surgery which required something called “stints” put into his heart. My understanding of this is limited, but I believe it is a small device intended to enlarge the veins. On his return from a business trip in Germany he had a full blown heart attack on the plane, got diverted to Bangkok and admitted to hospital there. Where after a week in their cardio deparment he learned that when putting these stints in, you are required to stay on a certain type of medication for a 3 month (?) period to assist with their acceptance / (?) of the body. The local doctors had only, according to guidelines, prescribed a 3 week course of this medication.

He knows of two people who had the same operation. Both of them died within two years of having this operation done. Neither of them were told they needed to carry on with this medication for 3 months.

Nobody from the hospital / medical area got in touch with patients to warn them of this. We, as a family, are currently researching and gathering as much information about this as we can in the hope that it will actually reach some other people who have had the same operation.

Because while people are on strike for higher pay, while the number of administrators and managers keep on climbing, there are people dying because of substandard care.

Lo and behold, she is. The current Labour government has had nigh on 9 years in power to fix any issues that might have cropped up. And if not fix, at least get the ship steered in the right direction. They have not managed this in the case of health, or so it seems. Continuing to blame this on the past simply shows an inability to accept responsibility for your own failures.

And as Inventory2 pointed out – Helen Elizabeth Clark? Too funny!

The name of the health minister escapes me , but it could have been Jenny Shipley

[DPF: Why only go back 15 years. Let's blame that Seddon character from 100 years ago]

1. Poor governance. Ill equiped Boards. Lack governance financial and legal understanding to make good decisions.

2.Too many Managers Administrators Consultants all trying to defend their patch.

3. The Straining at Gnats and Swallowing Camels Syndrome.
Hightlighted above .Overly complex procedures to obtain a safety pin whilst aprovn multi million dollar expenditure in a flash.

4. Government interference in the wrong areas frustrating the efforts of good people.

5. Lack of consultation with the rock face to find out whats needed.

All easily solved by a committee of 2 persons with one bastard permanently absent.

The other thing we should all get behind is supporting the dotors get PET in NZ for cancer patients. It is long overdue.

http://aucklandhealth.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/lets-get-pet-for-auckland/

Lisa, I appreciate your comments, and I have read many of your previous posts also. I’m not sure whether you are at ADHB but for Auckland District health Board we feel after the elections we can start afresh on staff and patient relations, and put the agro and conflict behind us. Front line staff and facilities equally and universally available to all patients we see as our top priority and can’t understand why that had not been the case. i hope other hospital boards will follow suit. I would be very interested in hearing further from you and any other doctors and nurses.

Dunno about that, the consultants look quite happy.

Sorry Kev – I’m out in the provinces – Lawsville, to be precise. The only way to get on council or DHB here seems to be to join the Vision Eyeliner Wearers party, and I ain’t gonna go there!! (Apologies for the grammar).

PS – Condolences to the whanau of Chas Poynter – I didn’t always agree with the little bloke, and maybe he stayed as mayor one term too long, but you couldn’t fault his energy, passion and commitment for the job. He will be fondly remembered by many. Which begs the question – toupee or eyeliner – which is the greater fashion crime? Chas would have seen the humour in that! RIP Chas.

Flippin heck – is that the going rate now? We used to budget on around $1200 a day in the good old CHE days – so that’s a 250% increase since 1999! No wonder $5bil in extra spending doesn’t make anyone healthier!!!

In 2000, I had a shin infection. I was taken to the local Emergency Department, examined after an hour, sent to x-ray to ensure the infection had not spread to the bone, and from the x-ray department, I was admitted within about 45 minutes. That’s from front door to admitted, on an IV antibiotic drip within 2 hours.

Where was this wonderful service. Makati Medical Centre, Manila, the Phillipines!

my Lord, you would have to laugh if it wasn’t just so sad. I had the same issue with my daughter a while back….I lasted 2 hours of her not having a pillow while lying on a cot in the emergency dept until I went up to a ward and stole one off a bed.

I like RWWR’s comments. I mean how hard could it be to at least start addressing this issue.

Of course, they would have to employ a dozen consultants at 3k a day to manage the project for them.