There’s a debate raging about how serious the Government’s Covid-19 border testing botch-ups are. Many Labour partisans are calling complaints and media investigations into border management a beat-up and overly-aggressive. They claim problems at the border are being exaggerated, with testing failures of minor importance in the government’s overall success in dealing with the pandemic. …
It might seem like just another complicated local management tussle, but the current turmoil in the Canterbury District Health Board reflects some significant changes in health policy. Health commentator Ian Powell says the management of our hospitals and care systems is heading down a “centralist authoritarian path” that will have major ramifications for the quality …
Health commentator Ian Powell – formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – visited Cuba earlier this year, learning about their health system, and says the country has now done extremely well in combating Covid-19, especially given the attempts by their neighbour to undermine their very existence. The United States …
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality of hospital buildings where a …
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world has thrust death and dying …
Could the quarantine and testing botch-ups have an impact on the election? The Government might have been hoping that the scandal was a one-week wonder, but the stories of quarantine and testing fiascos keep coming and will be felt strongly by the public. Many voters will now have much less confidence in the Government’s handling …
One of the valuable things about Health & Disability Commission (HDC) decisions (findings) is that interesting experiences are published in a readable manner from which much can be learned. Decisions are specific to their own distinctive circumstances. Each HDC decision involves some form of tragedy. But they can provide insights into how our health system …
The right of employees to strike is an internationally recognised employment right that has been a feature of New Zealand’s industrial relations system for over a century, albeit with different constraints and limitations at different times. Although more restricted, this right even continued under the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (1993-2000). It is a basic right …
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in some Australian states. He told …
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and the White Island volcanic eruption …
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number of DHBs is the wrong …
In assessing the effectiveness of the Government’s response to the Covid-19 threat it is important to distinguish between responsiveness and preparedness. The better the former, the greater the likelihood of glossing over weaknesses in the latter. New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 has been extraordinary. Compared with much of the rest of the world we have …
As is often the case with crises, the coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for New Zealand’s political leadership. Jacinda Ardern’s decisive and effective health response to the virus has garnered both New Zealand and herself adoring headlines around the world, particularly in countries starving for basic governmental competence. New Zealand’s exceptional handling of the …
We must of course have equality of treatment, patients with this virus will be treated for free, and they’ll be treated as part of a single, national hospital service. These were the words of the Irish health minister Simon Harris when he announced the nationalisation of all private hospitals for the duration of the Covid …
The coronavirus crisis afflicting the planet raises the issue of vaccines as a commercial commodity made profitable through patents rather than a public good. As a family of genetically related viruses affecting respiratory systems, coronavirus is not new. Covid-19 is its most recent and serious family member. Coronavirus was first discovered in chickens in the …
Should the approach towards Covid-19 be to eliminate (such as China and New Zealand) or mitigate (Sweden) this dangerous virus? This is the question that countries must consider. Professors Michael Baker and Nick Wilson (both public health specialists) describe the differences between elimination and mitigation in their 10 April Guardian article Elimination: what New Zealand’s …
There will be no one left unaffected by the rapid sweep of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor the measures governments have taken to prevent loss of life. Every one of us in New Zealand is experiencing a temporary loss of basic civil liberties and we all will suffer consequences in regards to our health, mental wellbeing, …
In 1975’s Jaws, which is one of those rare perfect movies, only some of the conflict is with the shark, which is visible in just a handful of shots. For most of the film it is an unseen menace. Indeed, as the characters stare out at an impenetrable ocean, they can never be quite certain …
Is David Clark the best possible Minister of Health to be leading New Zealand through the Coronavirus crisis? Confidence in Clark has plummeted with today’s revelation that the Health minister made another recreational trip during the lockdown that appears to breach the Government’s own rules. The Prime Minister has decided not to accept his resignation, …
The experience of trying to implement ‘high performance high engagement’ (branded as HPHE) in the 20 district health boards is an unfortunate example of zealotry flavoured with a dose of duplicity leading to poor policy-making at the taxpayers’ expense. But for the intervention of pragmatism it could have been worse. It is a case study …
If Grant Robertson’s handouts to everyone from big business to gig workers have turned us all into socialists within a few weeks, it can equally be said that the relentless barrage of information about Covid-19 from around the world has quickly made us all epidemiologists — mostly of the armchair variety. I realised I had …