Bye, Bye Health!

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, September 26th, 2024 - 45 comments
Categories: budget 2024, chris bishop, health, Shane Reti, simeon brown - Tags: , , ,

Bye, Bye hospital plans!

Today Rachel Thomas reports – $3.2 billion is sleighted to come out of “hospital and mental health infrastructure projects”, and it seems the first formal casualty is Dunedin hospital, South Island.

ODT reports former Labour Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson saying:

“At the end of the day, the question is whether or not the southern region will have an adequate clinical facility or will not.

‘‘And if the aim is to build half a hospital then the public response to that will be one of outrage.’’

Dunedin – who have fought hard and admirably – even creating a song below – is not the first hospital casualty.

Whangarei hospital in the North is another –

After criticising Labour for putting aside $759 million towards Whangarei hospital, and slamming Labour for not accelerating the build, the first thing Shane Reti did as Health Minister last year was to defer the Whangarei build and re-allocate the $759 million.

Doctors’ warnings fell on deaf ears.

Nelson hospital is another.

In May, it was revealed the government was looking at how to reduce costs. And in August, Shane Reti announced it would go ahead but with a smaller scale build, which posed questions about patient care and scalability.

But – let’s be clear – these cuts shouldn’t be a surprise.

They were all well previewed in Lester’s multiple “Pray for Me” talks where he signalled hard decisions would have to be made to the Health budget.

And big cuts in health (infrastructure, people, systems, investment) were all coming down the pipe to meet their artificial budget limit.

And this is not a case of no money – this is a deliberate and intentional choice of budget allocation away from the public sector to landlords, tobacco companies, private school operators, and road operators to name a few.

Today, Chris Bishop and Shane Reti said the $3bn Dunedin Hospital cost is “unaffordable” and too expensive – yet the $70bn price tag for roads is not. And that includes the East-West link that would be the most expensive road in the world for little benefit!

Or the $8bn for landlords over a decade. Or the $35.7bn for tax cuts over a decade.

These short term cuts to our services, people and investment, are shortsighted because ultimately our population is aging, people have health needs all the time, cuts to hospitals/IT systems and investment will need to catch up, and the government has burdened the health system by repealing smoke free, reinstating prescription fees, discouraging cycling, killing off many Maori-health supports, and telling GPs to raise their fees etc.

This will all, ALL, add up as a ballooning health debt that all of NZ will have to pay for – and at a much higher cost tomorrow.

Reposted from Mountain Tui Substack

NB. Please note Dunedin Council is organising a protest march for September 28th March. More details here: https://linktr.ee/theysavewepay

45 comments on “Bye, Bye Health! ”

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  1. Ngungukai 1
    26 September 2024 at 1:36 pm

    Don’t see this Government spending anything on Health, Natzi’s normally under fund this sector. Tax cuts for Landlords and their voter base is far more important.

    • tc 1.1
      26 September 2024 at 2:32 pm

      Basic lack of humanity being shown here pure and simple so landlords can do even better

    • tWig 1.2
      26 September 2024 at 9:46 pm

      The Nats made big noises before the election about Labour's proposed downsizing of the project, hinting they would reinstate the full proposal. Those criticisms were rolled out at TS to run Labour down.

      As I said before, a prime example of the Nats pork-barreling without the pork.

  2. Kay 2
    26 September 2024 at 3:12 pm

    I'm looking forward to everyone who voted for this to suddenly need the assistance of said health system, and not be able to get it. There are still certain situations where their gold-plated health insurance won't save them, because it's not offered in the private system.

    Is it bad that I no longer feel any empathy at all for people who get ill, if they voted against the best interests of society?

    • tc 2.1
      26 September 2024 at 3:23 pm

      Consider what happens when things go wrong privately and the public system is expected to pick up the pieces.

      They've already fkd the GP practices over in public and using fear and NDA's to keep a lid on their current purge within the Hospital system and beyond.

    • Champaign Socialist 2.2
      27 September 2024 at 10:56 am

      Unfortunately – you can run down a loved public health service and suffer no electoral consequences. The UK is your example – 14 years of the Conservatives and underfunding of the NHS went hand in glove. The key to achieving this is a major culture war issue – immigration in the UK, indigenous rights in NZ – this drives the electoral focus away from living standards, public services and the economy.

    • Mikey 2.3
      28 September 2024 at 10:23 am

      I doubt if they would make the connexion. Probably find some way to blame Jacinda.

  3. Tony Veitch 3
    26 September 2024 at 4:05 pm

    The CoC proposes to spend $30 billion on ‘roads of national significance’, but are quite prepared to cut funding to health and social services!

    There is a rationale underlying these decisions – their wealthy donors have private health insurance, send their kids to private schools and probably have never entered a WINZ office in their lives.

    But – they do use roads – to get to the airport for their overseas holidays or to the beach to their baches. Therefore, roads and speeds on roads are important to these wealthy donors.

  4. Champaign Socialist 4
    26 September 2024 at 5:03 pm

    Voters made a choice about tax cuts and reducing the public sector – they chose both of those things consciously. If you deliberately lower the governments income by voting for a tax cut and spite against the state then guess what comes next – less public services and infrastructure investment.

    • tWig 4.1
      26 September 2024 at 9:52 pm

      But those voters were expecting a quiet under-the-covers removal of funding, like under Key, which didn't impact most directly, or immediately.

      Instead, it's slaah-and-burn, Small State ideology.

      Even a $100 pw cut isn't going to cover ballooning government charges. No more tax cuts until the next elections, either.

  5. KJT 5
    26 September 2024 at 5:28 pm

    Currently New Zealand health care, despite the vandalism by the last and this National Government, vastly outperforms the US system for value for money and access to care.

    However, as in so many other things the Coalition of Cockups, is determined to make the USA look better by bringing our system down.

    Mirror, Mirror 2024: An International Comparison of Health Systems | Commonwealth Fund

    • SPC 5.1
      27 September 2024 at 12:02 am

      A large increase 9-11% of GDP (2019-2022).

      Our access to primary care is now declining (for both those registered with providers and growing numbers without one)

  6. Ad 6
    26 September 2024 at 6:30 pm

    The sunk costs and redesign $$$ will be far, far bigger than the ferries.

    This makes the ferry disaster very small.

  7. Kay 7
    27 September 2024 at 8:13 am

    In my extreme cynicism, one has to wonder if, depriving people of healthcare (particularly those at the bottom of the heap) = less people on benefits and a drop in demand for social housing? Statistics look SO much better when you've killed off those inconveniences.

    God I am so cynical this morning.

    • Obtrectator 7.1
      27 September 2024 at 9:20 am

      Especially when said "inconveniences" happen to be in an electorate that favours the Labour and/or Green parties ….

    • Ngungukai 7.2
      27 September 2024 at 11:09 am

      Not sure what's going on with this COC Government they seem very bitter and twisted and are looking to beat up on Maaori and the Lower Socio Economic Groups to satisfy their loyal followers.

    • Patricia Bremner 7.3
      27 September 2024 at 1:07 pm

      yes Kay. No more free covid tests from mid Oct example of just that thinking.

  8. PsyclingLeft.Always 8
    27 September 2024 at 8:23 am

    Hi Mountain Tui. As alternate header…Buy, Buy NZ Health.

    the government says is simply unaffordable.

    And Chris Bishop lies…

    "We are trying to do the right thing by the public, of Dunedin, but also the rest of the country.

    "We're making tough decisions and being upfront and transparent."

    Fellow liar dr Reti….

    Health Minister Shane Reti said there were problems from the very beginning and he expressed his frustrations.

    He defended promises made on the campaign trail, saying they were based on the information they had at the time.

    And they both..attempt to blame Dunedin for consequences to other NZ Hospitals !? FFS, like they werent going to slash them anyway !

    Reti and Bishop – who are both in Dunedin to brief stakeholders – are warning that vital upgrades to other hospitals could be at risk if the budget blowout at Dunedin was not addressed.

    "This cost simply cannot be justified when hospitals around New Zealand are crying out for maintenance, upgrades and new facilities. Dr Reti and I are concerned that badly needed infrastructure upgrades to Whangarei, Nelson, Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North and Tauranga hospitals may be put at risk if New Dunedin continues to go so far over budget."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/529094/government-signals-downgrade-of-new-dunedin-hospital

    Increasingly looking like privatisation of at least some (how much?) of NZ's Health System : (

  9. Ngungukai 9
    27 September 2024 at 8:50 am

    NACT1st not looking Super Good these days with the General Public with all these cut cuts to Hospitals and Health Services especially when we the Tax Payers can afford to give Landlords $2.9 Billion in Tax Cuts. Also benefitting our PM 6 Pads Luxon ???

    • Srylands 9.1
      27 September 2024 at 1:05 pm

      What do you expect? The budget has blown out by about $1.5 billion. It is the ferries all over again.

      The last government was foolish to reject a PPP for the project.

      • tWig 9.1.1
        28 September 2024 at 9:55 am

        Believe PPPs save $$$? They come with ongoing post-construction payments to consortia members.

        In the Transmission Gully project "The Wellington Gateway Partnership (WGP) built the road and has a 25-year contract to operate it, while it remains in public ownership." While I can't find a ref easily, I seem to remember my jaw dropping at this ongoing cost, in the $100s of millions, essentially buying part of the build on the never-never.

        There is also a separate contract for Ventia to maintain the road. The RNZ report said no one is taking responsibility for environmental issues, and local councils are worried about the lack of accountability.

        Plus acrimonious litigation about overrun costs has cost taxpayers plenty to date.

        Cheaper? More efficient? [Snorts].

        • Macro 9.1.1.1
          28 September 2024 at 10:08 am

          Exactly – from the UK here is a snippet of an independent and totally academic examination of the effect of PPP's

          Most of the existing literature on public-private partnerships (PPPs) focuses exclusively on the nature and perceived benefits of PPPs, notably their professed efficiency gains in the provision of public goods and services. However, little attention has been devoted to analyzing one of the main drivers of PPPs, that is, their use by governments to hide public debt—through non-transparent accounting practices—and their consequences. In this chapter, we assess the financial and social costs of PPPs and illustrate their impact on public debt and human rights, drawing on several examples in order to offer some lessons from experience to date.

          There is more on the horrendous costs of the extensive use of PPPs in the UK here.

  10. Mike the Lefty 10
    27 September 2024 at 10:06 am

    National will be saying under their breath "that's what happens when you Dunedin people vote Labour "

    I'm sure politics played a large part in this decision.

    • Graeme 10.1
      27 September 2024 at 11:04 am

      Dunedin hospital mught be sited in a traditionaly Labour electorate, but it’s patients mostly come from very blue places in wider Otago and Southland.

      The good people of Wanaka, Queenstown, Dipton and Alexandra will be less than happy with this decission and will be protesting it along with all sectors of Dunedin.

      National will be bleeding party votes down here with this, along with the ferry debacle. Toll roads and congestion charges will be fuck off.

  11. Michael who failed Civics 11
    27 September 2024 at 11:24 am

    All Labour needs to do now is sleep walk to victory. A few crocodile tears and a bit of sanctimonious handwringing wouldn't go amiss but not essential. No need to build that hospital either.

  12. tWig 12
    27 September 2024 at 1:43 pm

    Assoc. Spokesperson for Health, Dr Tracey McLellan, delivers Labour's critique in Parliament of this government's hospital build policies.

    (Link to Gerard Otto FB page), includes transcript

    "[Dunedin and Otago] have endured and suffered through months now of uncertainty about what this new government had planned for this development. They have heard bits and pieces of information. They have heard the minister of health in particular and sometimes the minister of infrastructure talk out of both sides of their mouth quite frankly about promising a hospital for Dunedin or promising you know a service consideration for Dunedin without actually committing in the way that the previous government had, and the outcry from the people of Dunedin because they won't be happy and they know that that the that they know that they have one tool available to them at this moment and that is their very very strong their very very concerted and their very very unified voice"

    This won't be forgotten before the next election.

    • Michael who failed Civics 12.1
      27 September 2024 at 8:30 pm

      Labour will be hoping that people will have forgotten its dithering and dicking around on the Dunedin hospital project between 2018-2023. I can assure you we won't.

      • tc 12.1.1
        27 September 2024 at 8:59 pm

        Yes dear

      • joe90 12.1.2
        27 September 2024 at 9:10 pm

        In May 2018 the required land was purchased. The 2019 Budget approved a $1.4 billion budget for the project.

        In Aug 2020 the business case was approved and the preferred design was agreed.

        In Apr 2021 the detailed business case was approved, the project was referred to the covid recovery fast-track consenting process and the budget was increased to $1.47 billion.

        In Aug 2021 planning and costing continued and approved contractors were announced.

        In 2022 procurement continued, surging costs resulted in a rethink of facilities, fewer beds and operating theatres and cuts to imaging tech were announced, and the budget was increased to $1.58 billion.

        In 2023 the budget was boosted by another $100 million and the ball was passed to the CoC. The dopey pricks dropped it.

  13. thinker 13
    28 September 2024 at 8:36 am

    They were all well previewed in Lester’s multiple “Pray for Me” talks where he signalled hard decisions would have to be made to the Health budget…

    …a new and unusual strategy that you have to admire in a warped sort of way.

    1. Minister of Health appoints Levy to take charge of Vote Health.
    2. Levy asks people to pray for God to help Levy in his work.
    3. Dunedin Hospital gets axed.
    4. Ergo, Dunedin Hospital was simply not part of God's Plan for the good people of Southland.
    5. Ergo, Levy and Reti blameless.

    laugh

  14. PsyclingLeft.Always 14
    28 September 2024 at 8:48 am

    Did National check ..the numbers ? Chris Bishop flaps, dissembles ..and lies.

    Did National check its numbers before new Dunedin Hospital promises?

    After announcing the Dunedin Hospital rebuild plan is now too costly, Minister of Infrastructure Chris Bishop says he regrets election promises that it would go ahead – but would not say if his party had run the numbers before making promises.

    Opposition to plans to downgrade the project has been vocal, including from the healthcare sector and local politicians. Among them was Waitaki District mayor Gary Kircher, who described the latest development as "a pig's breakfast".

    Kircher said the south had not been served well when it came to healthcare, and the hospital was needed to deliver tertiary care that smaller regional hospitals such as Oamaru Hospital were not resourced for.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/529283/did-national-check-its-numbers-before-new-dunedin-hospital-promises

    The Nats wanted votes ! The deluded, even the must change govt , were fooled (even moreso !)

    So of course they said anything that would get them in.

    • Ngungukai 14.1
      28 September 2024 at 8:55 am

      Fricken hell, don't you realise we haven't got any money, especially after the Tax Cuts and the $2.9 Billion rebate to Landlords, anyway it is only the Bottom Feeders that are going to suffer.