health
Categories under health
- covid-19 (322)
- long covid (11)
- vaccines (11)
Big Mac nation
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 13th, 2009 - 99 comments
New Zealanders are now the third fattest nation in the world according to a report covered in today’s Christchurch Press. New Zealand faces a healthcare time-bomb as a new report ranks the country once touted for its outdoorsy, fit population as the third-fattest nation after Mexico and the United States. Health authorities fear disease and […]
Toast
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 34 comments
What a horrifying sight today’s Q+A interview with Minister of Food Safety Kate Wilkinson made. It was a shameful performance from a media point of view, with Wilkinson looking ineffectual, implausible and well out of her depth. But from a political point of view it was gobsmacking. Wilkinson enthusiastically admitted that she didn’t agree with new […]
Double strength spin from Armstrong
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, July 4th, 2009 - 14 comments
Former journalist John Armstrong runs National’s line on health today: The Cabinet’s loosening of rules on district health boards farming out non-urgent surgical operations to private hospitals is the logical step to take for a Government trying to get more from less…Monday’s decision is a step towards public and private providers eventually competing for the […]
Bill sez: ‘pay cuts for youse’
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, July 3rd, 2009 - 91 comments
Yesterday in Question Time, Bill English sent a message loud and clear to teachers, police, doctors, nurses, and all other public servants (‘frontline’ or not): under National, you’ll be getting pay-cuts, don’t expect cost of living adjustments, watch as your pay-packet buys less and less. Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has stated a number of […]
Nats give ticket-clipper to private hospitals
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 30th, 2009 - 8 comments
The government has changed the rules so that DHBs can make standing contracts for private hospitals to perform public elective surgeries. If DHBs start to contract large numbers of electives to these private providers, they will have to hire more medical staff and they’ll have to poach them from the public system. It’s not like […]
Who pays for swine flu?
Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 18th, 2009 - 15 comments
A lot of people (like a million people or more according to the experts) are set to get sick from swine flu or not be able to go to work because the business is shut because of swine flu. What will happen to people’s incomes when they can’t work because of swine flu? The statutory […]
1600 Dead Again
Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, May 17th, 2009 - 34 comments
Each year and every year, around 1600 New Zealanders die prematurely because we live in cold damp houses. This “excess winter death rate” is four times higher than the road toll. They die, most especially the young, unwell, disabled and elderly, of respiratory illnesses, strokes and heart attacks because far too much of our housing […]
When more is less
Written By: - Date published: 3:31 pm, May 8th, 2009 - 2 comments
Colin Espiner writes: “Another thing that’s being clearly signalled is that Labour’s previous spending promises in health and education won’t be honoured in the Budget. That $3.4 billion of spending Labour planned for 2009/2010… At the same time, Key and English are at pains to say that health and education spending will increase – and […]
Govt still refuses to act on youth smoking
Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, April 21st, 2009 - 42 comments
A couple of months ago you may remember Tony Ryall rejecting a health select committee recommendation that cigarettes and tobacco be kept out of sight in shops to help make them less inviting. On Sunrise this morning Oliver Driver wanted to know, in the light of fresh evidence, why Key’s government is still intent on […]
Mission-On off
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, March 26th, 2009 - 21 comments
If the definition of PC is doing things because they fit an ideology, not because they make sense, then it’s clear National and ACT are pushing their own PC agenda. It’s out with successful and value-for-money programs like Mission-On. For a small cost now in helping kids develop healthy eating habits we will save ourselves […]
Clean water worth paying for
Written By: - Date published: 5:28 am, March 26th, 2009 - 14 comments
Rodney Hide, who thinks nothing of spending billions on tax cuts for the well-off, is baulking at spending “some tens of millions” to improve water supply quality in rural New Zealand. A quick google of ‘water borne disease new zealand’ reveals the cost of doing nothing. There are 800,000 people drinking water that the Ministry of Health […]
How to reduce ACC costs without cutting cover
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 32 comments
The sensationalist tone of media releases regarding the financial situation at ACC has ignored the causes behind this so called ‘blow out’. The investment losses have been a big part of it but there is also a rising accident rate stemming from our ageing population and climbing obesity rates, which has been foreseen by medical experts for some time. We […]
National’s newspeak
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, March 5th, 2009 - 15 comments
When he’s not hard at work protecting the profits of tobacco giants by helping them peddle smokes to your kids, Ryall’s having a go at his own version of Newspeak. Stuff reports that there’s a list of banned words currently circulating in the Health Ministry. The list includes “public health, social change, inequalities and advocacy”. […]
National’s ambition for your kids: a pie and a fag
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 44 comments
Last month Anne Tolley ditched the requirement that schools sell healthy food to kids. Not to be outdone, minister for tobacco Tony Ryall now wants to make cigarettes more accessible to them too. Ryall has rejected the health select committee recommendation that cigarettes and tobacco be kept out of sight in shops, choosing to favour […]
Electives
Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, February 26th, 2009 - 33 comments
If the 20 new elective surgery theatres Health Minister Tony Ryall has announced were going to be funded with new money, I would say ‘sounds good, let’s hope we can get the staff’. But Ryall is taking the money out of the existing budget and, so, I have a couple of issues to raise. Ryall continually says ‘the […]
Ryall sacks DHB Chair
Written By: - Date published: 5:47 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 31 comments
Health Minister Tony Ryall’s decision to sack Richard Thompson as Chairman of the Otago District Health Board on the grounds of historical fraud by a staff member has a nasty whiff of political interference to it. Considering the fraud began before Thompson became Chairman and it was caught and stopped under his watch the case […]
Fingers burned
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, January 29th, 2009 - 20 comments
Word is Tony Ryall is feeling a bit burned over the herceptin funding. Turns out the private specialists needed to administer the treatment are going to cost a wee bit more than he expected. That’s right, the scheme has been locked into legislation without being properly costed and now the government is stuck with the […]
Penny wise?
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, January 21st, 2009 - 53 comments
Health Minister Tony Ryall has followed Paula Bennett’s* lead by cancelling a conference for PR purposes**. In terms of symbolism it’s great. Even though the per-person cost of the conference was low, and it’s not like doctors would want to spend their precious time at a conference were it pointless, and the cost was only […]
The housing question
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, December 1st, 2008 - 55 comments
Good housing is a foundation of a healthy society, and it is something that New Zealand has long lacked. Despite leading the world with our state housing in the 1930s, we have fallen behind. Housing in most other first world countries is much warmer and drier than here. That has important consequences; a study by […]
‘Cos I say so
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, November 26th, 2008 - 22 comments
Following Tony “cos I say so” Ryall’s media success with his plan to cut down waiting lists using the King Canute model of governance, the word around the traps is that several of National’s front bench are planning similar moves. Over the next few days expect the following: Simon Power will announce plans to tell […]
Ryall: do it or else
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 25th, 2008 - 32 comments
Health Minister Tony Ryall’s first policy will be to impose maximum waiting times for hospital emergency departments. No word on extra funding for achieving those goals (the UK achievement in shortening waiting times that Ryall cites came with large health budget increases) or what will happen if they are not met. Now, it’s great to […]
A clear choice on ACC
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, October 29th, 2008 - 48 comments
If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: – $200 million in profits flowing offshore, according to John Key’s former employers Merril Lynch – higher levies on most workers, as private insurers cherry-pick the most profitable for themselves, leaving the […]
Wrong time for short-term thinking
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, October 14th, 2008 - 90 comments
National’s Nick Smith has announced that they would cancel the $1 billion fund to insulate New Zealand houses, which the Greens won as part of the Emissions Trading Scheme. This massive programme would improve energy efficiency, create warmer, healthier homes and would provide useful employment during the downturn. A study, ironically carried out under National and mentioned to me […]
Nats letting the facade drop
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 4 comments
We’ve been receiving reports of some appalling statements by National MPs on the campaign trail. They mesh with the arrogance and heartlessness that shines through in the secret agenda tapes. A writer reports on David Bennet’s performance at a forum on mental health policy in Hamilton: Mr Bennett came absolutely unprepared. he had no knowledge […]
Video: health policy like you’ve never seen it
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, September 16th, 2008 - 39 comments
Fair to say this is video is pretty much out there…
Nats’ leaked health policy full of holes
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 pm, September 10th, 2008 - 10 comments
Having just read the National health policy and background paper released by Labour, a few things stand out to me. 1) There is no commitment to primary health-care. In fact, in 25 pages all it says is ‘we’ll do what’s already happening but we’ll re-name PHOs ‘Family Health Centres’, got ‘family’ in the name, don’t […]
Nat health policy: more money for rich, fewer for poor
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, September 10th, 2008 - 60 comments
Jim Anderton is releasing elements of National’s health policy at Question Time: – Pharmac’s independent decisions could be overruled by politicians. – Private health insurance would be subsidised by the taxpayer. – No more money for public health National’s Jonathan Coleman also reportedly said that he doesn’t think GP fees are high enough.
Market failure
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, September 5th, 2008 - 27 comments
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce and indicates that those who live in poor areas are more likely to die early than those in wealthy areas. Dr Pearce said the changing social and political environment disadvantaged poor people […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 28th, 2008 - 31 comments
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. The circle represents the status quo in 1995-97 each spoke represents a different measure (income, crimes per capita etc). If the spoke is longer than the circle than the measure has improved between 1995-97 […]
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