It doesn't matter how modern the equipment or how flash the new logo will be.
If Little adheres to the same neo-liberal playbook;
play hardball in the pay parity negotiations,
out-source the training of staff (immigration),
have bean counters and accountants run the hospitals
and continue the race to the bottom attitude with sub-contracting food, security, laundry, IT and maintenance, not a lot will change.
Squandering a once in a lifetime opportunity to make real change…
The NZ public health sector has 80,000 staff, making HealthNZ/ Te Whatu Ora the largest employer in Aotearoa. Getting the IT systems aligned is a big part of the reforms. Your resentment of recruiting skilled workers is weird. I don’t get your problem with contracting out various services either.
The “opportunity for real change” is being realised. The end goal is to cut waiting lists and balance health services across Aotearoa as effectively as possible by working together instead of 20 separate DHBs
Their aims are impressive Roblogic. Meanwhile back at the coal face wait times are increasing because the Minister is failing to settle the pay dispute, nurses are burnt out and will look to go to greaner pastures.
The minister should have made his one and only priorty fixing the workforce shortages. Until that happens our health system will remain at crisis
If recruiting experienced workers from overseas worked, we wouldn’t have the issues we have now as this has been the tactic for the last few administrations. Also our health staffing should reflect our population ie more Māori and PI, we don’t need more UK, Phillipino,Indian staff.
Let’s face it, not training/upskilling is a consequence of neo-liberal thinking. witness hospitality and construction industries. Staff are seen as an expense, a cost rather than an asset to be invested in.
As for bringing support roles in-house l, it’s a wonderful way to build a resilient workforce where loyalty and a sense of belonging can be nurtured. Some hospital food contracts are about frozen food being delivered from outside the district and reheated. Hardly ideal for folk that are convalescing.
The whole ‘efficiency’ argument is akin to trickle down.
No comment on the Health Minister’s lack of enthusiasm for settling the pay parity?
The whole ‘efficiency’ argument is akin to trickle down.
Not sure what you mean by that. In hospitals and other medium-large complex organisations people on the ground and at the lower/lowest management levels pick up most of the slack caused through inefficiencies. Often, they don’t realise it or just accept it as ‘par for the course’ or as ‘part of the job’ but it can take up a significant portion of their time, energy, and efforts and thus acts as a drain on primary and vital resources. Even worse is when they must actively battle the system and try ‘repair’ or ‘clean up’ the mess caused by inefficient organisational management. A top-heavy management and bureaucracy is both cause and effect of intrinsic problems with(in) the organisation.
Perhaps I should quote the whistleblower from Rotorua Hospital
"We are facing extrem staff shortages. We are currently 13.89 FTEs down and increasing, that is equivalent to 140 shifts a fortnight in gaps"
"While Daniels (nurses union) declined to discuss any specific hospital or department, she said that NZ is short of 21,000 nurses….patient risk increases without the right nursing staff in the right areas"…" asked toperform as before "in dangerous situations", with ED full, but not enough nurses"
From Stuff 22 October 2022 (will try and post the link)
"The patient left the ED and deteriorated shortly after leaving and returned to Ed where they were seen immediately. Sadly the patient did not respond to medical treatment and they died the following day….ED was very busy during this period which meant wait times were longer than usual"
And from Stuff 24th August 2022. "The findings from an investigation into a patints death at Middlemore Hospital emergency department in June highlight the extreme pressureit had been operating under due to staffing shortages and surging patient numbers. ……The patient arrived at MM ED with a severe headache and was told it would be hours before she could be seen and she left…..she returned to the hospital some hours later in an ambulance having experienced a massive brain haemorrhage and died the following day"
There have been more of these cases.
But by all means pat Little on the back for putting all his time and energy into a shiny new bureacracy. When the ship is finally turned around (Health NZ estimates it will take 5 years to see any real change, don't be surprized if you find there is no health system…….those people who are the health system, you know people who treat you if you are sick will have buggered off to somewhere where they are well treated (rather than having to fight for the pay and conditions, while being told their is racsim in the Health system and they must "reflect" on this).
BTW Ian Powell, the former Executive Director of Salaried Medical Specialists, writes extensively on the state of our Health System, and in one of his columns he recounts how in 2017 he spoke to David Clark about what needed to happen in the health sector. He told David there were three problems: workforce shortage, workforce shortage and workforce shortage. Labour have had five years on this.
Shane Reti spoke well on Q and A about what he would do to fix the health service. Clear concrete ideas. I posted it recently.
Well, it was formally launched just over 4 months ago. Your question is rhetorical and/or unanswerable as it stands, and IMO it does not easily lead to anything useful.
Sacha this was my response to Roblogic which I have copied and pasted in response to your comment about "flapping their gums". I made the assumption that this refers to me.
I often find on the Standare when people use such puts downs it is because their argument is weak.
"What catastrophe are you blathering about?"
Perhaps I should quote the whistleblower from Rotorua Hospital
"We are facing extrem staff shortages. We are currently 13.89 FTEs down and increasing, that is equivalent to 140 shifts a fortnight in gaps"
"While Daniels (nurses union) declined to discuss any specific hospital or department, she said that NZ is short of 21,000 nurses….patient risk increases without the right nursing staff in the right areas"…" asked toperform as before "in dangerous situations", with ED full, but not enough nurses"
From Stuff 22 October 2022 (will try and post the link)
"The patient left the ED and deteriorated shortly after leaving and returned to Ed where they were seen immediately. Sadly the patient did not respond to medical treatment and they died the following day….ED was very busy during this period which meant wait times were longer than usual"
And from Stuff 24th August 2022. "The findings from an investigation into a patints death at Middlemore Hospital emergency department in June highlight the extreme pressureit had been operating under due to staffing shortages and surging patient numbers. ……The patient arrived at MM ED with a severe headache and was told it would be hours before she could be seen and she left…..she returned to the hospital some hours later in an ambulance having experienced a massive brain haemorrhage and died the following day"
There have been more of these cases.
But by all means pat Little on the back for putting all his time and energy into a shiny new bureacracy. When the ship is finally turned around (Health NZ estimates it will take 5 years to see any real change, don't be surprized if you find there is no health system…….those people who are the health system, you know people who treat you if you are sick will have buggered off to somewhere where they are well treated (rather than having to fight for the pay and conditions, while being told their is racsim in the Health system and they must "reflect" on this).
BTW Ian Powell, the former Executive Director of Salaried Medical Specialists, writes extensively on the state of our Health System, and in one of his columns he recounts how in 2017 he spoke to David Clark about what needed to happen in the health sector. He told David there were three problems: workforce shortage, workforce shortage and workforce shortage. Labour have had five years on this.
Shane Reti spoke well on Q and A about what he would do to fix the health service. Clear concrete ideas. I posted it recently.
My point is Incognito, that restructuring the bureacracy should have been the lowest priority, in a pandemic and when we are facing the workforce shortage we have.
If you have time read my response to Roblogic above. It outlines what a catastropic situation with are in.
You completely ignore the inefficiencies & duplication in the current system that’s hopelessly fragmented and is wasting huge amounts of money and time of good people on bureaucracy & ‘management’. You also ignore the need for better coordination and sharing of epidemiological intelligence in future pandemics. Your approach is to let this haemorrhaging continue until and only after we’ve fixed all the other issues. The best approach is, IMO, to do both because both must be done simultaneously, although on different time scales. The many huge workforce issues (e.g., recruiting and retaining skilled staff where they’re needed most) are not even unique to NZ, partly because this nation competes for skilled healthcare workers on the global market, but the structural reorganisation is specific to this country.
I would never say the old DHBs were great and all was good. However they served us well enough during Covid.
The main issue I give upmost priority to is the health workforce staff. Recruiting and retaining them and keeping them safe in their work environment.
Can you give me some examples of the duplication and time wasting in the old DHB system.
I have a close contact who worked in the old system and now Health NZ.
This person is quite high up. They say that Health NZ is in a complete shambles and in their opinion is unlikely to achived equity (I realize that is only their opinion, but I do value it).
There was another article in Stuff recently where senior Drs said all they have noticed so far from the health reforms was a change of logo.
I am not entirely against health reforms, but during a pandemic? I seem to recall one Minister saying that one reason Ashleigh B left is because he didn't have it in him to manage the reforms.
Having worked in the health system many moons ago, I know that things that happened in Wellington have very little impact on what we did (as long as we had adequate staffing, good mentoring and the chance to do meaningful professional development). Adequate staffing (as there was back then, ) allowed us to get on a do our best work.
Can you give me some examples of the duplication and time wasting in the old DHB system.
Look, if you don’t read the comments made here then replying to you is just a waste of (my) time.
IT has already been mentioned. The DHBs have their own IT fiefdoms departments.
Procurement is another obvious candidate for centralisation.
The provision of very highly specialised medical services in and by only a few lead DHBs should be coordinated (and funded) through one national agency instead of individual DHBs and MoH.
These are just a few high-level examples, and I could go on …
Yes the various historic health boards all have their own legacy IT systems. None of which speak to one another (which is why hospital patients being transferred from one hospital to another – even within the same historic health board (e.g. Waitakere and North Shore) – come complete with a paper dossier (it's the folder you're given to clutch as they load you into the ambulance – OK, sometimes the ambos keep it, if you're really sick)
The IT companies (mostly international) are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a nation-wide IT system in health. Millions (if not billions) of dollars, and a multi-year implementation plan (migrating legacy data is not a trivial exercise). The dollar signs are lighting up all over.
In the meantime – each IT department will absolutely need to retain their own staff (in order to keep their own legacy systems operational – we saw the disaster at Waikato when they went down). AND they will have to hire new staff to participate in this major project (potentially they'll hire the new staff to run the legacy systems, and transfer existing staff to the project – but it all means more FTE)
This is a state-of-play summary from 2020. It seems highly unlikely that anything has significantly improved since then.
Poor and outdated systems – mean that users and administrators are highly motivated to change (not to be sneezed at, institutional inertia is always a drag in projects) – but it also means that legacy data is likely to be difficult to extract, validate and export/import.
Possibly, 10-years down the track when everything is bedded it, the IT dept FTE will decrease. But it certainly isn't going to happen sooner.
I can't speak to procurement – but I will note that all of the procurement, and service booking systems are run off the IT core – so with fragmented IT systems, it's going to be a devil of a job to co-ordinate effectively across the whole of the new health system.
What I am saying is that the health workforce is in utter crisis (that is why I continue to post articles about it). If you don't have a well resourced health work force, you have nothing.
The health work force has been saving lives and treating people, long before the internet.
Have you been to the GP and/or Pharmacy lately? Have you noticed their computer screens? Have you had an MRI or CT-scan done lately, or an ECG? Computers, software, and IT systems make that work. Do you know that medical records are increasingly becoming digitized, including test results, prescriptions, DNA sequencing data, image data & processing, treatment planning (e.g. radiotherapy), et cetera? Do you know that making appointments and internal bookings (rooms, equipment & materials, people) rely on automated booking systems? Do you realise that stock & storage are now computer-controlled? Have you heard of tele-medicine or Zoom consults? And when was the last time you paid cash at the doctor’s?
We don’t live in the 20th century anymore and this is not just about stitching up people or plastering arms.
Its very obvious to me that the most pressing priority is the health work force.
Everyday there are articles in the major news sites about the state of the workforce. Today an article about a patient who had a long wait attacking another patients and abusing hospital staff. Shouldn't the Minister be putting out a statement that this is completely unaccepable? And a few days back staff in Chch being attack by a patient.
They don't seem to care a dam about the health work force
Yawn. Get some new material. Labour has made more progress in the Health portfolio than National could be bothered with in its 9 years. Nine years of pay freezes and waiting lists cut for no reason apart from political convenience.
When I busted my arm in early 2020 — a severe break needing surgery — I couldn't even get an *appointment* at Orthopaedics in Whangarei. Went to Auckland instead and finally got someone to look at the damn X ray, they said "oh" and rushed me in to surgery – about 9 days later.
"Yawn. Get some new material. Labour has made more progress in the Health portfolio than National could be bothered with in its 9 years. Nine years of pay freezes and waiting lists cut for no reason apart from political convenience."
What I am saying is that the health workforce is in utter crisis (that is why I continue to post articles about it). If you don't have a well resourced health work force, you have nothing.
The health work force has been saving lives and treating people, long before the internet.
Yes so much has improved under Health NZ……( I am sorry to have to stoop to sarcism here)
But really that you couldn't get an orthopaedics appointment in Whangarei. That is my whole point. If we are short of health professionals and there is a the sort of crisis we are seeing as I have documented, then that is where Andrew Little's attention needs to go. Now
SBF is the owner of multiple exchanges and hedge funds all connected (he has lost 15b$ overnight) and Crypto is now in full meltdown as everyone runs for the exits.
Do you see the utterly regressive and sexist nature of gender ideology yet? And why so many women are saying no. (see if you can separate the ideology from transness)
While it may be unkind to view adult behaviour and lifestyles as pathological, it is much worse to channel children into a lifetime of dysfunction and difficulty because of a phase or a fad.
Trans is a western concept of categorizing people who are not living their 'sex' as prescribed by society – with the end goal of medically and surgically modfying bodies for the supposed mental wellbeing of the people identified as trans and the very handsome profits of the medical industrial complex. Trans creates people who will end up living their lives totally and utterly dependent on the medical complex, much like a person who is type 1 diabetic is
livelong depended on government to setting affordable prices for insulin.
Fa'afafine is the concept / word for categorizing people who are not living their sex stereotypes in the Samoan culture, but as far as i am concerned they are still male, still play sports with the men, physically stay men, but live their lives in a societal fashion more attributed to females.
I would never even consider comparing the two as they are very different.
I doubt that there is a movement in Samoa trying to remove the word mother/woman from people with the ability to get pregnant, stay pregnant and then ‘birth’ a child. While here in our western world we are very much agitating to remove the word mother – implying ownership over the child to a term that could literally be a job describtion. Birth giver, birthing person, birthers – which implies one is doing a thing, but implies no ownership. After all a dog / cat / horse / dairy cows are all birth givers.
In fact maybe our western social concept of trans could learn some from the Samoan concept of Fa'afafine – like a women vs trans – is a woman no different at all to the things we no longer want to call women in order to not be offensive to people who want to be men and the people who want to be women.
Fa'afafine is a descriptor of those that exhibit certain behaviours within the Samoan culture. Unlike the TWAW mantra, they are recognised as men. That clarity is significant. The fact they are now used as legitimacy for current gender ideology is through convenience not accuracy.
"Your comment is incredibly dismissive, pathologising many people who are gender non-conforming."
Given the ever increasing numbers of behaviours and groups sheltering under the trans umbrella, I think this is an understandable overreach, but one that still could apply to a significant percentage the third group roblogic identified.
As you clarified those who are just gender non-conforming, will most likely not be AGP.
This subject is such a minefield, ripe for misunderstanding to blow up.
I am happy to see people living free from gender stereotypes.
I am not happy to see young people rejecting their natural bodies and attempting to conform to an opposite stereotype via drastic surgery and dangerous doses of hormones.
Research into the causes of gender incongruence isn't "pathologising" people, it is exploring why they exhibit these behaviours. Understanding leads to compassion, and might open up new treatments for those who choose it.
I think Blanchfield also talked about the passive male to female trans, who had identified with female gender stereotypes as a young child and wants to be a very submissive "woman"
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Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130408721/we-are-in-crisis-says-ed-whistleblower-who-claims-10-shifts-every-24-hours-vacant
this is very very serious. Little needs to front
no tertiary debt repayment required while working in public health (nurses/doctors – and make it zero after 10 years).
have a plan to increase wage levels in public health to the Oz wage (year by year over 10 years).
"no tertiary debt repayment required while working in public health (nurses/doctors – and make it zero after 10 years)."
Also, while training, receive a weekly payment of $300. No need to pay it back if still working after 5 years.
He needs to front? Not again …
naked painting of Andrew Little. Big no thanks.
little has to take responsibility for this catastrophe and the lives lost.
remind me again of how much money NZ health has cost and what it has achieved?
What catastrophe are you blathering about. Covid?
Or are you saying we should not bother to modernise and upgrade our health infrastructure and let it continue to rot like the Nats did??
And you've accused Little of "lives lost". Evidence please.
It doesn't matter how modern the equipment or how flash the new logo will be.
If Little adheres to the same neo-liberal playbook;
play hardball in the pay parity negotiations,
out-source the training of staff (immigration),
have bean counters and accountants run the hospitals
and continue the race to the bottom attitude with sub-contracting food, security, laundry, IT and maintenance, not a lot will change.
Squandering a once in a lifetime opportunity to make real change…
The NZ public health sector has 80,000 staff, making HealthNZ/ Te Whatu Ora the largest employer in Aotearoa. Getting the IT systems aligned is a big part of the reforms. Your resentment of recruiting skilled workers is weird. I don’t get your problem with contracting out various services either.
The “opportunity for real change” is being realised. The end goal is to cut waiting lists and balance health services across Aotearoa as effectively as possible by working together instead of 20 separate DHBs
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_New_Zealand
Their aims are impressive Roblogic. Meanwhile back at the coal face wait times are increasing because the Minister is failing to settle the pay dispute, nurses are burnt out and will look to go to greaner pastures.
The minister should have made his one and only priorty fixing the workforce shortages. Until that happens our health system will remain at crisis
If recruiting experienced workers from overseas worked, we wouldn’t have the issues we have now as this has been the tactic for the last few administrations. Also our health staffing should reflect our population ie more Māori and PI, we don’t need more UK, Phillipino,Indian staff.
Let’s face it, not training/upskilling is a consequence of neo-liberal thinking. witness hospitality and construction industries. Staff are seen as an expense, a cost rather than an asset to be invested in.
As for bringing support roles in-house l, it’s a wonderful way to build a resilient workforce where loyalty and a sense of belonging can be nurtured. Some hospital food contracts are about frozen food being delivered from outside the district and reheated. Hardly ideal for folk that are convalescing.
The whole ‘efficiency’ argument is akin to trickle down.
No comment on the Health Minister’s lack of enthusiasm for settling the pay parity?
Not sure what you mean by that. In hospitals and other medium-large complex organisations people on the ground and at the lower/lowest management levels pick up most of the slack caused through inefficiencies. Often, they don’t realise it or just accept it as ‘par for the course’ or as ‘part of the job’ but it can take up a significant portion of their time, energy, and efforts and thus acts as a drain on primary and vital resources. Even worse is when they must actively battle the system and try ‘repair’ or ‘clean up’ the mess caused by inefficient organisational management. A top-heavy management and bureaucracy is both cause and effect of intrinsic problems with(in) the organisation.
Just that efficiency was cited by Chicago School acolytes as a reason for out sourcing.
I hear what you say about workers battling the system. I live with someone with a moral injury.
Sorry to hear that, but IIRC I already knew that, right?
Cheers, I have talked around the moral injury.
Things are better, being in a different environment, maternity.
I didn't say 'efficiency'
I said 'effectiveness' … i.e. delivery of good outcomes for patients & whanau
Nothing wrong with either, unless 'efficiency' is taken to the extreme end of cost-cutting madness (per Elon Musk)
"What catastrophe are you blathering about?"
Perhaps I should quote the whistleblower from Rotorua Hospital
"We are facing extrem staff shortages. We are currently 13.89 FTEs down and increasing, that is equivalent to 140 shifts a fortnight in gaps"
"While Daniels (nurses union) declined to discuss any specific hospital or department, she said that NZ is short of 21,000 nurses….patient risk increases without the right nursing staff in the right areas"…" asked toperform as before "in dangerous situations", with ED full, but not enough nurses"
From Stuff 22 October 2022 (will try and post the link)
"The patient left the ED and deteriorated shortly after leaving and returned to Ed where they were seen immediately. Sadly the patient did not respond to medical treatment and they died the following day….ED was very busy during this period which meant wait times were longer than usual"
And from Stuff 24th August 2022. "The findings from an investigation into a patints death at Middlemore Hospital emergency department in June highlight the extreme pressureit had been operating under due to staffing shortages and surging patient numbers. ……The patient arrived at MM ED with a severe headache and was told it would be hours before she could be seen and she left…..she returned to the hospital some hours later in an ambulance having experienced a massive brain haemorrhage and died the following day"
There have been more of these cases.
But by all means pat Little on the back for putting all his time and energy into a shiny new bureacracy. When the ship is finally turned around (Health NZ estimates it will take 5 years to see any real change, don't be surprized if you find there is no health system…….those people who are the health system, you know people who treat you if you are sick will have buggered off to somewhere where they are well treated (rather than having to fight for the pay and conditions, while being told their is racsim in the Health system and they must "reflect" on this).
BTW Ian Powell, the former Executive Director of Salaried Medical Specialists, writes extensively on the state of our Health System, and in one of his columns he recounts how in 2017 he spoke to David Clark about what needed to happen in the health sector. He told David there were three problems: workforce shortage, workforce shortage and workforce shortage. Labour have had five years on this.
Shane Reti spoke well on Q and A about what he would do to fix the health service. Clear concrete ideas. I posted it recently.
These problems are not unique to New Zealand. Health is always a huge issue for public-minded governments, pandemic or no.
USA: Health systems buckle under latest surge of COVID hospitalizations | PBS NewsHour
Australia: Public Hospitals under pressure | Australian Medical Association (ama.com.au)
UK: NHS workforce shortages and staff burnout are taking a toll | The BMJ
Like a habadasher, you're working on your material.
Comparing the U$A health system with ours, then calling them public minded.
Excellent stuff!
Yes. As opposed to the deliberate bald faced lies and Covid coverups of the Trump administration.
Just circling back to the matter we were discussing before your confetti of links, any thoughts on Little's approach to his workforce?
Well, it was formally launched just over 4 months ago. Your question is rhetorical and/or unanswerable as it stands, and IMO it does not easily lead to anything useful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_New_Zealand
Huge change process. Turning a supertanker, etc. Wasting our time with anyone who refuses to learn the basics before flapping their gums.
Sacha this was my response to Roblogic which I have copied and pasted in response to your comment about "flapping their gums". I made the assumption that this refers to me.
I often find on the Standare when people use such puts downs it is because their argument is weak.
"What catastrophe are you blathering about?"
Perhaps I should quote the whistleblower from Rotorua Hospital
"We are facing extrem staff shortages. We are currently 13.89 FTEs down and increasing, that is equivalent to 140 shifts a fortnight in gaps"
"While Daniels (nurses union) declined to discuss any specific hospital or department, she said that NZ is short of 21,000 nurses….patient risk increases without the right nursing staff in the right areas"…" asked toperform as before "in dangerous situations", with ED full, but not enough nurses"
From Stuff 22 October 2022 (will try and post the link)
"The patient left the ED and deteriorated shortly after leaving and returned to Ed where they were seen immediately. Sadly the patient did not respond to medical treatment and they died the following day….ED was very busy during this period which meant wait times were longer than usual"
And from Stuff 24th August 2022. "The findings from an investigation into a patints death at Middlemore Hospital emergency department in June highlight the extreme pressureit had been operating under due to staffing shortages and surging patient numbers. ……The patient arrived at MM ED with a severe headache and was told it would be hours before she could be seen and she left…..she returned to the hospital some hours later in an ambulance having experienced a massive brain haemorrhage and died the following day"
There have been more of these cases.
But by all means pat Little on the back for putting all his time and energy into a shiny new bureacracy. When the ship is finally turned around (Health NZ estimates it will take 5 years to see any real change, don't be surprized if you find there is no health system…….those people who are the health system, you know people who treat you if you are sick will have buggered off to somewhere where they are well treated (rather than having to fight for the pay and conditions, while being told their is racsim in the Health system and they must "reflect" on this).
BTW Ian Powell, the former Executive Director of Salaried Medical Specialists, writes extensively on the state of our Health System, and in one of his columns he recounts how in 2017 he spoke to David Clark about what needed to happen in the health sector. He told David there were three problems: workforce shortage, workforce shortage and workforce shortage. Labour have had five years on this.
Shane Reti spoke well on Q and A about what he would do to fix the health service. Clear concrete ideas. I posted it recently.
It was a general observation. Wrestling pigs, etc
My point is Incognito, that restructuring the bureacracy should have been the lowest priority, in a pandemic and when we are facing the workforce shortage we have.
If you have time read my response to Roblogic above. It outlines what a catastropic situation with are in.
You completely ignore the inefficiencies & duplication in the current system that’s hopelessly fragmented and is wasting huge amounts of money and time of good people on bureaucracy & ‘management’. You also ignore the need for better coordination and sharing of epidemiological intelligence in future pandemics. Your approach is to let this haemorrhaging continue until and only after we’ve fixed all the other issues. The best approach is, IMO, to do both because both must be done simultaneously, although on different time scales. The many huge workforce issues (e.g., recruiting and retaining skilled staff where they’re needed most) are not even unique to NZ, partly because this nation competes for skilled healthcare workers on the global market, but the structural reorganisation is specific to this country.
I would never say the old DHBs were great and all was good. However they served us well enough during Covid.
The main issue I give upmost priority to is the health workforce staff. Recruiting and retaining them and keeping them safe in their work environment.
Can you give me some examples of the duplication and time wasting in the old DHB system.
I have a close contact who worked in the old system and now Health NZ.
This person is quite high up. They say that Health NZ is in a complete shambles and in their opinion is unlikely to achived equity (I realize that is only their opinion, but I do value it).
There was another article in Stuff recently where senior Drs said all they have noticed so far from the health reforms was a change of logo.
I am not entirely against health reforms, but during a pandemic? I seem to recall one Minister saying that one reason Ashleigh B left is because he didn't have it in him to manage the reforms.
Having worked in the health system many moons ago, I know that things that happened in Wellington have very little impact on what we did (as long as we had adequate staffing, good mentoring and the chance to do meaningful professional development). Adequate staffing (as there was back then, ) allowed us to get on a do our best work.
Health professionals are exhausted.
Look, if you don’t read the comments made here then replying to you is just a waste of (my) time.
IT has already been mentioned. The DHBs have their own IT
fiefdomsdepartments.Procurement is another obvious candidate for centralisation.
The provision of very highly specialised medical services in and by only a few lead DHBs should be coordinated (and funded) through one national agency instead of individual DHBs and MoH.
These are just a few high-level examples, and I could go on …
I can speak a bit about IT.
Yes the various historic health boards all have their own legacy IT systems. None of which speak to one another (which is why hospital patients being transferred from one hospital to another – even within the same historic health board (e.g. Waitakere and North Shore) – come complete with a paper dossier (it's the folder you're given to clutch as they load you into the ambulance – OK, sometimes the ambos keep it, if you're really sick)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/functionally-obsolete-it-system-at-auckland-hospital-to-be-scrapped/2KWD4MTSLNWCGSGKQTWXLHCXGU/
The IT companies (mostly international) are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a nation-wide IT system in health. Millions (if not billions) of dollars, and a multi-year implementation plan (migrating legacy data is not a trivial exercise). The dollar signs are lighting up all over.
In the meantime – each IT department will absolutely need to retain their own staff (in order to keep their own legacy systems operational – we saw the disaster at Waikato when they went down). AND they will have to hire new staff to participate in this major project (potentially they'll hire the new staff to run the legacy systems, and transfer existing staff to the project – but it all means more FTE)
This is a state-of-play summary from 2020. It seems highly unlikely that anything has significantly improved since then.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/418645/hospital-stocktake-shows-14b-in-upgrades-required-and-outdated-it-systems
Poor and outdated systems – mean that users and administrators are highly motivated to change (not to be sneezed at, institutional inertia is always a drag in projects) – but it also means that legacy data is likely to be difficult to extract, validate and export/import.
Possibly, 10-years down the track when everything is bedded it, the IT dept FTE will decrease. But it certainly isn't going to happen sooner.
I can't speak to procurement – but I will note that all of the procurement, and service booking systems are run off the IT core – so with fragmented IT systems, it's going to be a devil of a job to co-ordinate effectively across the whole of the new health system.
It'll be a bargain anyway compared to this one.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn
Are you saying that they’re cursed when they do and damned if they don’t? It’s a little unclear …
Thanks Belladonna.
Yeah, cheers Belladonna, good insights.
Sure, but it came at a price.
Contact tracing across the DHBs was not centrally coordinated and neither was there proper oversight of the number of ventilators or ICU beds.
I don't argue with the need for IT upgrades.
What I am saying is that the health workforce is in utter crisis (that is why I continue to post articles about it). If you don't have a well resourced health work force, you have nothing.
The health work force has been saving lives and treating people, long before the internet.
It is not an either-or.
Have you been to the GP and/or Pharmacy lately? Have you noticed their computer screens? Have you had an MRI or CT-scan done lately, or an ECG? Computers, software, and IT systems make that work. Do you know that medical records are increasingly becoming digitized, including test results, prescriptions, DNA sequencing data, image data & processing, treatment planning (e.g. radiotherapy), et cetera? Do you know that making appointments and internal bookings (rooms, equipment & materials, people) rely on automated booking systems? Do you realise that stock & storage are now computer-controlled? Have you heard of tele-medicine or Zoom consults? And when was the last time you paid cash at the doctor’s?
We don’t live in the 20th century anymore and this is not just about stitching up people or plastering arms.
I struggle to understand why we are having to repeat the same stuff over and over to an allegedly left leaning crowd, underneath a red standard.
Doubly so with a majority MMP government and a firmer union man as Health Minister.
Completely agree Gsays.
Its very obvious to me that the most pressing priority is the health work force.
Everyday there are articles in the major news sites about the state of the workforce. Today an article about a patient who had a long wait attacking another patients and abusing hospital staff. Shouldn't the Minister be putting out a statement that this is completely unaccepable? And a few days back staff in Chch being attack by a patient.
They don't seem to care a dam about the health work force
Yawn. Get some new material. Labour has made more progress in the Health portfolio than National could be bothered with in its 9 years. Nine years of pay freezes and waiting lists cut for no reason apart from political convenience.
When I busted my arm in early 2020 — a severe break needing surgery — I couldn't even get an *appointment* at Orthopaedics in Whangarei. Went to Auckland instead and finally got someone to look at the damn X ray, they said "oh" and rushed me in to surgery – about 9 days later.
The DHB system sucked
"Yawn. Get some new material. Labour has made more progress in the Health portfolio than National could be bothered with in its 9 years. Nine years of pay freezes and waiting lists cut for no reason apart from political convenience."
Damning with faint praise there rob.
`
from https://figure.nz/chart/c77PxswJK8z1pA2u
All that money but not enough for pay parity, maybe it's just a lack of will.
I don't argue with the need for IT upgrades.
What I am saying is that the health workforce is in utter crisis (that is why I continue to post articles about it). If you don't have a well resourced health work force, you have nothing.
The health work force has been saving lives and treating people, long before the internet.
Please stop making duplicate comments; one suffices.
Yes so much has improved under Health NZ……( I am sorry to have to stoop to sarcism here)
But really that you couldn't get an orthopaedics appointment in Whangarei. That is my whole point. If we are short of health professionals and there is a the sort of crisis we are seeing as I have documented, then that is where Andrew Little's attention needs to go. Now
That was an example from 2.5 years ago, before Covid, before any reforms. Unbalanced
Heaven to hell in 24 hours in cryptoland.
https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1589680515426443264
https://twitter.com/BloombergUK/status/1590112813552668673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1590112813552668673%7Ctwgr%5E97b2cf58bcb0b8215c5fcde79a9f8ef7d6b305a8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FBloombergUK2Fstatus2F1590112813552668673widget%3DTweet
While I'm here, go Captain Kane and the team. Semi-final vs Pakistan @ 9pm.
Even though the alarm goes off at 5.15, I aim to watch the game.
Yes Go the Black Caps.
My heart is still in my mouth watching the BCs!
nice to see good change.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1590254424404164608
https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount/109312790443967410
What's happened in the US today?
https://twitter.com/0liviajulianna/status/1590225340697579522
Guess where the job losses are coming from.
https://twitter.com/michaeljburry/status/1588612303926087680?cxt=HHwWgMCi1aee8YssAAAA
https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1589976029187244033
those are extraordinary figures, but my first question is how do they know?
From open secrets in US.Also good at tracking donors in the so called super pacs.
Another one is unusual whales who tracks large donors,and politicians investments .(via Bianco research).
https://twitter.com/biancoresearch/status/1589821335227990016?cxt=HHwWgIDQ6ZiFl5AsAAAA
SBF is the owner of multiple exchanges and hedge funds all connected (he has lost 15b$ overnight) and Crypto is now in full meltdown as everyone runs for the exits.
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1590240093482409984
is that pattern a habit of US voters? Vote for the party against the president to balance power?
I think midterm election results usually reflect presidential approval ratings. But this time the alternative appalled an awful lot of voters.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/the-2022-midterm-elections-what-the-historical-data-suggest
Incredible
https://twitter.com/xruiztru/status/1589622943122075650
Do you see the utterly regressive and sexist nature of gender ideology yet? And why so many women are saying no. (see if you can separate the ideology from transness)
https://twitter.com/helenstaniland/status/1590267659903709185
3 types of "trans"
1. Children… 100% caused by parental influence (munchausen by proxy)
2. Adolescents… 99% caused by social media and psychological problems
3. Adults, usually male to female.. very likely caused by pr0n and sexual fetish aka "autogynephilia"… the most toxic aggressive and vocal of the 3
None of the above have any basis in biology, unlike actual intersex/DSD related.
how do you explain fa'afafine?
If you're going to include AGP in your analysis, then Blanchard himself (who developed the definition) says that not all transwomen are AGP.
Your comment is incredibly dismissive, pathologising many people who are gender non-conforming.
Much of human experience isn't based in biology in the way you inply, but it still has meaning.
While it may be unkind to view adult behaviour and lifestyles as pathological, it is much worse to channel children into a lifetime of dysfunction and difficulty because of a phase or a fad.
"Self Love not Surgery"
(ps. I support gender nonconformity but not the present TRA movement, which looks a lot like MRA in drag)
Trans is a western concept of categorizing people who are not living their 'sex' as prescribed by society – with the end goal of medically and surgically modfying bodies for the supposed mental wellbeing of the people identified as trans and the very handsome profits of the medical industrial complex. Trans creates people who will end up living their lives totally and utterly dependent on the medical complex, much like a person who is type 1 diabetic is
livelong depended on government to setting affordable prices for insulin.
Fa'afafine is the concept / word for categorizing people who are not living their sex stereotypes in the Samoan culture, but as far as i am concerned they are still male, still play sports with the men, physically stay men, but live their lives in a societal fashion more attributed to females.
I would never even consider comparing the two as they are very different.
I doubt that there is a movement in Samoa trying to remove the word mother/woman from people with the ability to get pregnant, stay pregnant and then ‘birth’ a child. While here in our western world we are very much agitating to remove the word mother – implying ownership over the child to a term that could literally be a job describtion. Birth giver, birthing person, birthers – which implies one is doing a thing, but implies no ownership. After all a dog / cat / horse / dairy cows are all birth givers.
In fact maybe our western social concept of trans could learn some from the Samoan concept of Fa'afafine – like a women vs trans – is a woman no different at all to the things we no longer want to call women in order to not be offensive to people who want to be men and the people who want to be women.
"how do you explain fa'afafine?"
Fa'afafine is a descriptor of those that exhibit certain behaviours within the Samoan culture. Unlike the TWAW mantra, they are recognised as men. That clarity is significant. The fact they are now used as legitimacy for current gender ideology is through convenience not accuracy.
"Your comment is incredibly dismissive, pathologising many people who are gender non-conforming."
Given the ever increasing numbers of behaviours and groups sheltering under the trans umbrella, I think this is an understandable overreach, but one that still could apply to a significant percentage the third group roblogic identified.
As you clarified those who are just gender non-conforming, will most likely not be AGP.
This subject is such a minefield, ripe for misunderstanding to blow up.
I am happy to see people living free from gender stereotypes.
I am not happy to see young people rejecting their natural bodies and attempting to conform to an opposite stereotype via drastic surgery and dangerous doses of hormones.
Research into the causes of gender incongruence isn't "pathologising" people, it is exploring why they exhibit these behaviours. Understanding leads to compassion, and might open up new treatments for those who choose it.
Now this we do agree on Roblogic.
I think Blanchfield also talked about the passive male to female trans, who had identified with female gender stereotypes as a young child and wants to be a very submissive "woman"
Tech correction continues with Meta transferring 13% of staff to the underverse,after loosing investors 211b$ so far this year.
https://twitter.com/business/status/1590302225355919360?cxt=HHwWgMDSvdfc8ZEsAAAA