Ideology kills
November 5th, 2008 at 11:36 am by David FarrarMacDoctor blogs on how Labour is placing ideology above patient care. He explains:
There is excess capacity in the private health system. There is also an ability in the private health system to provide even more excess capacity at relatively short notice. Most surgical clinics have been constructed to allow rapid expansion of wards and theatres, particularly if resource consents are streamlined.
There are thousands of people on elective surgical waiting lists who are waiting many months to years for operations. Most of them could have already had their operations if the private sector was allowed to properly partner with DHBs. Currently, most private sector “public” operations are done under limited contract – often 1 or 2 surgical sessions at a time. There is absolutely no incentive for the private hospital system to “flex up” as the huge demand is being dealt with in a piecemeal fashion.
This is bad enough for Mrs. Smith who has waited three years for her hip operation and can barely walk. It is life-threatening to those who need cardiac surgery or radiotherapy. I am certain that, if Saturday sees the return of a Labour government, the brand new radiotherapy clinic in Auckland will have a few patients sent to it by the DHBs – the ones who have waited well beyond a safe waiting time. There will, however, be no concerted plan negotiated between the DHBs and the new clinic to maximise this new resource, because Mr. Cunliffe is apparently nearly out of his comfort zone.
This means, to put it baldly, people will die because of his ideology.
He also dispels the myths around using the private sector more:
I hear objections to using private health care occasionally from my colleagues. Their objection is that, if you move these patients out of the public system, hospital doctors will eventually have insufficient variety of work to maintain their skill sets (”I’m in charge” Cunliffe puts it as “sucking capacity out of the public system – a nonsense phrase, if I have ever heard one). Apart from the dubious ethics of essentially denying people timely care in order to maintain a doctor’s skills (or non-existent theoretical hospital capacity), this objection does not hold water. Most of the surgery dealt with by the private clinics is low complexity. Private clinics usually lack ICU beds and so cannot deal with the very complex. What maintains your skills better – 10 routine hip replacements or three complex revisions? Removing a dozen easy appendixes or a couple of complex appendix masses?
He concludes:
So let’s stop this whining about privatising medicine and use all of our resources, both private and public, to get the medical care that people need. National’s thoughts on this are very promising, particularly the multiyear funding guarantee which will enable both public and private resources to expand capacity with confidence. Yet another reason to vote for the three-headed hydra.
I note that the Herald uses the word “Elite” meaning “private”. I realise this is probably due to space constraints in their headline, but it is hugely insulting to those people who are having to mortgage or sell their homes in order to get the surgery they desperately need. I think we need to get past the place where we see private medicine as the domain of the wealthy and see it as a normal and valuable part of the entire health system.
This should be an op ed in a newspaper.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Whats new.
Vote:The graves of history are filled with the victims of failed socialist experiments
November 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
This idiotic adherence to these sacred ideological stances gonna bring this place down.
A few years ago the doc had a look at the thing that was growing on my back. Nothing serious but needed to be removed. If I had waited in the public system, well, I would still be waiting.
The doc sent me to a surgeon and surgeon booked me into the private hospital and a week later the growth was gone and I was a good as new.
Now, as a citizen i have a right to this health care but I opted out in favour of getting the job done when I wanted at my own expense. i would argue that I should get a tax credit or tax deduction for the amount of the surgical bill. It irks me when I can put a new motor in a work vehicle and get tax relief for that expenditure and yet repairs and maintenace to me, the boss!!, are taken from after tax income.
And insult to injury, not only did I opt out and make the expense myself but the mongrels collected GST on the bill!!
Macdoctor blogs on a more serious note. I submit that the nonsense can be found all over the health system.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
There is only one answer to shake the ideology out and make the people who think public health is fantastic look at this objectively.
No MP’s or employees of the the MOH should be allowed to have private health care of any kind at all. Not for themselves or their children. It’s unacceptable that they tell us we need to pay for something that they do not have confidence in themselves.
Somebody needs to produce a list of all MP’s and MOH employees that have any form or private health cover at all. Expose the bastards as being “do as I say not as I do”.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
You fix this problem easily. Tax rebates for those who buy their own insurance. As the private sector grows, the public shrinks.
[same deal with education]
But the state would lose control of a huge malfunctioning monopoly, and that’s the reason it’s not Labour’s policy. Can anyone explain why it’s not National’s?
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
As with Goverment bodies most of the hospital boards are themselves infected with the same Socialist philosophy as Cunliffe. By leaving people on waiting lists they create dependency the lifeblood of socialism.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
“You fix this problem easily. Tax rebates for those who buy their own insurance. As the private sector grows, the public shrinks.”
I agree that this is an issue, but re: the above – where do the sick-who-are-poor fit?
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Waiting lists are an indictment of an overweighted Hospital Administrtion
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
stephen
Under the current system, floating back and forward between their GP and and a hospital waiting list for extended periods.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
“where do the sick-who-are-poor fit?”
I’m sure we could all chip in for a cheap MDF casket?
Either way, public health/no public health they’ll probably need it anyway.
“Waiting lists are an indictment of an overweighted Hospital Administrtion”
How many of them are employed to draw up the waiting lists, gather statistics from them, manipulate said statistics etc etc.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Give the thread is ideology kills my earlier comments are even more urgent for Wellington Central voters to know.
Stephen Franks would win easily in Well Central if Wellingtonians were aware that Grant Robertson wants to put the blood transfusion service at risk due to his sheer bloody minded insistence on gay “rights”.
Vote:The Blood transfusion service has a policy of not accepting blood from people who have lived in Britain and eaten meat in the 1970’s This is because they have a slight risk of inadvertently transmitting BSE in donated blood. This is not discrimination against Brits. It is an appropriate scientific risk evaluation.
The Blood transfusion service and the Aids Foundation also agree with the policy that there has to be a 5 year window of gays abstaining from anal intercourse to allow blood transfusion. This is a sensible policy to ensure blood transfusion safety. Grant Robertson thinks and says that this is blatant discrimination against gays. Grant Robertson is a danger to all Kiwis.
He is also responsible for dreaming up and pushing interest free loans to cripple students with ten billion dollars of debt.
He is also deeply responsible , when working in Helen Clarks office for pushing the pledge card rort of $800,000 of taxpayers money and is proud of his theft.
Stephen Franks deserves to represent Wellington not just because Grant Robertson certainly does not.
Stephen Franks is the best candidate by far.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
The issue with health is not so much Public vs Private as the thieving medical profession.
I’d like to see the Govt give it a bloody good shakeup but they won’t because the Medical profession are powerful.
They control the supply of medical professionals limiting supply in a market with increasing demand meaning they can charge what they like which means insurance premiums go up which means the average joe struggles to pay for Private Ins.
Ross E – I think the diff between with Private Health Ins and Private Education is that Private Schools do get their share of the public funding you top it up with your privates fees. Whereas for Medical the Private Insurere pays the lot not just the top up if you get my drift.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
urt (2236) Vote: 4 1 Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
There is only one answer to shake the ideology out and make the people who think public health is fantastic look at this objectively.
No MP’s or employees of the the MOH should be allowed to have private health care of any kind at all. Not for themselves or their children. It’s unacceptable that they tell us we need to pay for something that they do not have confidence in themselves.
Somebody needs to produce a list of all MP’s and MOH employees that have any form or private health cover at all. Expose the bastards as being “do as I say not as I do”.
Totally agree with you Burt and would add that no MP or MOH employee be treated faster than the average wait time for hsopitals in the residential area they reside in. Do this and just watch the system speed up or alternatively we bury the problem – a real win win.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
freethinker
Yes the old saying ‘Ya gotta eat your own dog food”. Same goes for Education – How many MP’s and MoE staff have their kids at private schools?
For example – Why did Trevor Mallard who is a big supporter of school zoning not send his kids to the local school but rather packed them into Wellington on a bus everyday?
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
GTP: “The issue with health is not so much Public vs Private as the thieving medical profession.”
As a member of the “thieving medical profession” I can only say you have no idea what you are talking about. It comes down to standards. If you want a witchdoctor from Botswana looking after you then fine. Like all professions there is a ‘market’ for salaries. This applies to airline pilots, engineers, pharmacists, nurses, doctors, teachers etc. People will work where they feel most valued. If you want to flood the market with other less qualified players (and believe me this govt is trying very hard) you will have a resulting drop in standards. The reality for you people reading this is that the average age for a theatre nurse is 50. A quarter of them will retire in the next 5-10 years. The capacity constraints are getting worse by the day. Balance this against the average kiwis thirst for the latest high tech healthcare all paid for by the taxpayer of course. Healthcare is in trouble in all the western countries. If you say yes to Herceptin, what about the next $100,000 drug (and there are many of these in the pipeline)? Who is going to make these decisions about who gets what drug or what surgery? These issues are never debated at election time but they are fundamental. If you think this is going to be paid for by 3% GDP growth per year when healthcare inflation is 10% then you are deluded.At some point Kiwi’s will get a reality check as to the healthcare they can afford but this wont stop Clark promising something that cant be delivered. If want a govt to regulate the market in healthcare salaries then I know a good witchdoctor in Botswana for you…
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Cunliffe is fairly open about the fact that he has private health insurance (through his wife I believe).
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Jafa
I also looked at GTP’s comments and I wrote them off as policies of envy. I guess GTP would rather have no doctors in NZ than high paid doctors and can’t see the problems this would cause. Idiot.
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Disclosure of interest My late mother died as a result of a Ministry of Health policy that she wasnt to be admitted to hospital on a Friday night to ensure there were enough beds avaiable for the car crashes and fights etc
So she was admitted 12 hours to late and died.
Alas she is not the only citizen to have died due to MOH negligence
Vote:November 5th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
HEAR, HEAR, to this posting.
I think it was ACT, as usual, that pointed out recently that around FIFTY PERCENT of all common important operations are already DONE privately in NZ, partly because of private insurance and partly because of “people who are having to mortgage or sell their homes in order to get the surgery they desperately need.”
This is inspite of the fact that the TAXES that are being gouged out of us allegedly to provide us with “free health care”, are AT LEAST as expensive as gold-plated US health insurance schemes, but the actual services supplied under this “coverage” are just not on the same results graph as people in the US get in return for their money.
AND the NZ Private system is about TWICE as cost effective as the US private system, for a variety of reasons that NZ is wise not to emulate. I have essayed on these reasons before on this blog.
NOT using the NZ private system, is not just a “no-brainer”, it is one of the more sickening examples of ideology trumping the value of humans lives.
Do we ever see the cold hard light of truth and facts shone on this issue by the MSM?
Vote:November 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Well, there was an article in the Herald yesterday about how DHBs have done from funding almost zero private ops a year to 10% of ‘elective surgery’ now…
Vote: