Who pays for swine flu?
A lot of people (like a million people or more according to the experts) are set to get sick from swine flu or […]
Social issues
health
1600 Dead Again
Each year and every year, around 1600 New Zealanders die prematurely because we live in cold damp houses. This “excess winter death rate” […]
When more is less
Colin Espiner writes: “Another thing that’s being clearly signalled is that Labour’s previous spending promises in health and education won’t be honoured in […]
Govt still refuses to act on youth smoking
A couple of months ago you may remember Tony Ryall rejecting a health select committee recommendation that cigarettes and tobacco be kept out […]
Bad medicine
Mission-On off
If the definition of PC is doing things because they fit an ideology, not because they make sense, then it’s clear National and […]
Clean water worth paying for
Rodney Hide, who thinks nothing of spending billions on tax cuts for the well-off, is baulking at spending “some tens of millions” to improve […]
How to reduce ACC costs without cutting cover
The sensationalist tone of media releases regarding the financial situation at ACC has ignored the causes behind this so called ‘blow out’. The investment […]
National’s newspeak
When he’s not hard at work protecting the profits of tobacco giants by helping them peddle smokes to your kids, Ryall’s having a […]
National’s ambition for your kids: a pie and a fag
Last month Anne Tolley ditched the requirement that schools sell healthy food to kids. Not to be outdone, minister for tobacco Tony Ryall […]
Electives
If the 20 new elective surgery theatres Health Minister Tony Ryall has announced were going to be funded with new money, I would […]
Ryall sacks DHB Chair
Health Minister Tony Ryall’s decision to sack Richard Thompson as Chairman of the Otago District Health Board on the grounds of historical fraud […]
Fingers burned
Word is Tony Ryall is feeling a bit burned over the herceptin funding. Turns out the private specialists needed to administer the treatment […]
Penny wise?
Health Minister Tony Ryall has followed Paula Bennett’s* lead by cancelling a conference for PR purposes**. In terms of symbolism it’s great. Even […]
Calculating
The housing question
Good housing is a foundation of a healthy society, and it is something that New Zealand has long lacked. Despite leading the world […]
‘Cos I say so
Following Tony “cos I say so” Ryall’s media success with his plan to cut down waiting lists using the King Canute model of […]
Ryall: do it or else
Health Minister Tony Ryall’s first policy will be to impose maximum waiting times for hospital emergency departments. No word on extra funding for […]
A clear choice on ACC
If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: […]
Wrong time for short-term thinking
National’s Nick Smith has announced that they would cancel the $1 billion fund to insulate New Zealand houses, which the Greens won as part of the […]
Nats letting the facade drop
We’ve been receiving reports of some appalling statements by National MPs on the campaign trail. They mesh with the arrogance and heartlessness that […]
Video: health policy like you’ve never seen it
Fair to say this is video is pretty much out there…
Nats’ leaked health policy full of holes
Having just read the National health policy and background paper released by Labour, a few things stand out to me. 1) There is […]
Nat health policy: more money for rich, fewer for poor
Jim Anderton is releasing elements of National’s health policy at Question Time: – Pharmac’s independent decisions could be overruled by politicians. – Private […]
Market failure
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Tasteless
Thank God for those individuals of high morals who are at this moment whipping themselves into a frenzy over Pharmac’s decision to fund […]
Food Police State fails to eventuate
Remember the tories and the Kiwiblog Right getting all flustered about the ‘Food Police’, when guidelines were announced to control junk food in […]
Butting out
The Government has announced that the percentage of kiwi adults who smoke has fallen to 19.9%. The number of daily smokers is down from […]
Ryall: disgraceful
National’s Tony Ryall has made a disgrace of himself, yet again. This time, by labelling a Government initiative to hasten improvements in the […]
Hidden costs of private hospitals
If you’re paying for your health care you’d expect good service wouldn’t you? The release of four health commissioner decisions over the weekend and […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Government to fully fund virus vaccine
Vernon Small reports that the PM is due to announce an immunisation programme for teenage girls targeting human papilloma virus. The programme is […]
I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose […]
In praise of ACC
It was nice to see this independent report into the ACC scheme by Price Waterhouse Coopers. Amongst the general positive comments was this […]
What’s up, Doc?
There have been a number of stories recently about the number of doctors heading overseas but they are usually sensationalist and lack context. […]