Category: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Hospital investment needs to be matched with staffing investment

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says boosting hospital capacity and upgrading some facilities represents a much-needed catch-up in the country’s Covid preparedness, but the same priority must be given to critical understaffing.
The Government has announced that 24 hospitals will receive upgrades to improve care and isolation of patients, along with an increase in ICU capacity.
“The Covid crisis has shone a very hard light on a public health system which has endured year upon year of underfunding, under resourcing, and undervaluing of staff,” says ASMS President Dr Julian Vyas.
Clinicians have repeatedly raised red flags about New Zealand’s lack of preparedness to deal with endemic Covid, both in terms of ICU capacity and poor facilities.
Dr Vyas says there is no doubt that those working on the frontline will welcome the extra capacity along with the improvements to isolation management and proper ventilation systems.
However, he warns adequate staffing is what underpins the system.
In Southland for example, there are six ICU beds, but they can only cater for one patient due to lack of staffing.
“Our doctors and nurses are stretched dealing with busy wards and emergency departments, while at the same time juggling entrenched staffing shortages, which makes their work unsafe, results in reduced access to care for patients, and leads to burnout,” says Dr Vyas.
He says they are also being asked to catch up on the backlog of routine surgeries and medical treatments which have been delayed by Covid lockdowns.
“Adding much needed hospital bed capacity and making improvements to the system is heartening but let’s not forget the people who support that,” Dr Vyas says.
With the demand for health services projected to increase at higher rates than the health workforce can keep up with in the next ten years, ASMS is calling on the Government and the new Health NZ to act urgently and commit to proper workforce planning.
Dr Vyas says, “the longer the Government waits to act on ensuring proper recruitment and retention of staff in our hospitals and health services, the harder the fix will be.”
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Health reform legislation – read our submission

ASMS has said clinical governance will be essential to the successful implementation of the health reforms as part of its submission to a parliamentary select committee on the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. The legislation sets up the foundations and legal framework for the largest reform of the health system in a generation.

If enacted, the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill will replace the current New Zealand Health and Disability Act 2000 and result in a major restructuring of the health sector which will take effect on 1 July 2022.
On that date, DHBs will be disestablished and every DHB employee will become an employee of Health New Zealand (HNZ) on the same terms and conditions. This does not include DHB chief executives.
All DHB assets (including public hospitals) will be vested in HNZ and all rights, liabilities, contracts, entitlements, undertakings, and engagements of a DHB will transfer.
HNZ will be the largest employer in the country with a workforce of about 80,000, an annual operating budget of $20 billion and assets worth about $24 billion. It will lead the health system operations, planning, commissioning, and delivery of services working with the new Māori Health Authority (MHA).
Notably one of the objectives of HNZ in the bill is “to promote health and prevent, reduce, and delay ill-health, including by collaborating with other social sector agencies to address the determinants of health”.  This is not an objective for DHBs under the current legislation, and one which ASMS considers a positive change.
The bill establishes the MHA as an independent statutory entity to co-commission and plan services with HNZ, commission kaupapa Māori services and monitor the performance of the system for Māori.
The Ministry of Health will continue to be the chief steward of the health system and principal advisor to the Minister with overarching responsibilities for strategy, policy, regulation, and monitoring. A new Public Health Agency will be established as a business unit within the Ministry, bringing together the 12 public health units.
The Minister has established an interim MHA and interim HNZ as departmental agencies within the Ministry and has appointed board members. The boards are currently advising the Minister, including on the structures and leadership teams of the new entities.
An Interim Health Plan, developed by the interim HNZ and interim MHA, will apply when the bill comes into effect next year.
Here are the key points from ASMS’ submission:

ASMS generally supports the intent of the Pae Ora (Health Futures) Bill and the repeal of the New Zealand Health and Disability Act 2000.
We agree with restructuring the health system and establishing new Crown entities – the Māori Heath Authority (the Authority) and Health New Zealand (Health NZ).
We do not support shifting the emphasis of the health system to primary and community services, as it is too simplistic. We believe there must be greater focus on developing and supporting an integrated healthcare system.
We strongly support the aim of achieving health equity for Māori and for Māori decision-making and power-sharing to reflect the Crown’s obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
We support the legal recognition of iwi-Māori partnership boards, the health system principles, the development of a Government Policy Statement on Health, a New Zealand Health Strategy, Health Plan and Charter.
We strongly support the establishment of a Public Health Agency and a population health focus. We believe it should be a stand-alone agency.
We believe that the health budget must be significantly increased to provide healthcare to meet the needs of all New Zealanders.
We believe clinical governance will be essential to successful implementation of the reforms and senior doctors need to be able to access appropriate non-clinical time so they can contribute.
We believe there must be greater focus on building and valuing the health workforce, and greater attention to investing in the public health system infrastructure.

The full submission is here 
 
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Do you know about time in lieu over public holidays?

Time in lieu for working a public holiday can only be claimed once? That means, where a public holiday is Monday-ised, if you work both the actual day and the Monday, you can only claim one alternative (or lieu) day. You will be paid at the appropriate rate for all days you work, but one public holiday only generates ONE alternate day of leave.
This holiday season Christmas, Boxing, New Year’s Day and 2 January all fall on a weekend, so all generate alternative holidays: Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December; Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th January.
This means if you work on both of 25th and 27th December, only one counts as the public holiday. You are entitled to normal public holiday rates, plus one lieu day. If you work neither day, you are still entitled to the paid public holiday.
There are a few exceptions to this advice. If you seldom work on a Monday, for example, you are probably not entitled to be paid for a public holiday that falls on a Monday.
This is all laid out in Clause 24 of the DHB MECA but if you have any queries or concerns about public holiday arrangements, pay, or lieu days, please get in touch with your industrial officer.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Beyond the Mask

The artistic talents of our doctors and dentists are on display at the Beyond the Mask exhibition organised by ASMS and the Academy of Fine Art in Wellington. ASMS members took away the big awards on opening night.

The exhibition was planned around our Annual Conference, but even though Covid forced the conference online, the exhibition went ahead with opening night on November 24.
There are about 50 paintings, drawings, photos, and sculptures on display by doctors and dentists who take time away from their busy day jobs, to channel their creative sides.
The exhibition is on at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington and runs until 5 December. Many of the pieces have been sold but you can see all the artworks on display and still for sale on the gallery’s website www.nzafa.com

Best Overall Artwork – Ashvini Kahawatta (anaesthetist, Wellington) – “It Looks Clean Enough”

Best Artwork by First Time Exhibitor – Jon Mathy (plastics specialist, Auckland) – “Not a Clockwork Orange”

Merit Award for First Time Exhibitor – Erin Doherty (medical specialist, Northland) – “Red Rock Bay”

MAS and MPS Sponsors Choice Award – “Alec MacDonald (retired psychiatrist, Wellington) – The Circumnavigators”

People’s Choice Award – Annie Judkins  (GP, Porirua) – “I Would Have to Grow Roses Out of My Nose to Drink Dandelion Coffee”

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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Inside the Frontline of the Mental Health Crisis

A substantive new report by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora details the stresses and challenges facing the country’s psychiatrists in the face of soaring demand for mental health services. It is based on a survey of ASMS psychiatry members and reveals that 45 percent would like to leave their job.

The report ‘Inside the Frontline of the Mental Health Crisis’ details the stresses and challenges facing the country’s psychiatrists. It is based on responses from 368 psychiatrists who took part in an ASMS survey.
It follows on from an earlier ASMS report ‘What Price Mental Health?’ which detailed rising demand for mental services, reduced bed capacity and clinically stressed services.
ASMS Director of Policy and Research and report author Dr Charlotte Chambers says the fact mental health services are in crisis is no secret, but this new report provides a unique snapshot of how our psychiatrists are faring within that context.
Some of the key findings are:

45% agree they would leave their current job if they could
95% report an increase in demand for specialist mental health services in the past three years
86% report an increase in the complexity of their caseload
76% report an increase in the size of their caseload
87% don’t feel they are working in a well-resourced mental health service
35% report high levels of burnout

Psychiatrists serve as cornerstones of the teams responsible for the delivery of mental health services.  The report highlights the struggles they face in providing the psychiatric care New Zealanders need, and the effect on their own wellbeing.
Some of their comments include:
“We often feel like patients are being discharged to the community to fail. This failure takes the form of suicide, homicide, estrangement and homelessness.”
“Due to high caseloads, patients are not seen as often as required by best practice guidelines, often slowing their recovery.”
“I love working with my clients/patients however the current system is unsustainable. We do not have enough staff or resources to retain staff, the staff around me are burnt out.”
“Very distressing to see very unwell patients who are unable to be admitted due to lack of beds.”
“I am referred more complex patients but with less resources and too little time.”
“When I look back on patient files, I am reminded how much care we could provide five, ten and fifteen years ago to specific patients compared to now”.
“I think my health will deteriorate if I stay in my current job”.
Dr Chambers says psychiatrists report no meaningful change or improvement out of the 2018 inquiry into mental health and addiction, or the $1.9 billion set aside for mental health in response. In addition, she says the Government’s most recent 10-year plan for mental health is, at this stage, nothing more than a set of aspirations.
The report lays down a challenge for the new national health employer Health NZ to ensure staffing rates are adequate in mental health services across the country, including nurses, psychologists and counsellors, and that buildings and infrastructure are fit-for-purpose.
“The emphasis in this report on the impact of poor physical work environments, absence of functional IT systems and logistical challenges to complete the simplest of tasks is not going to improve doctor wellbeing or health outcomes for mental health patients,” says Dr Chambers.
There are also warning bells over recruitment and retention of psychiatrists and the desperate need for succession and workforce planning.
“It is concerning that a number of mental health services do not employ trainee psychiatrists, and New Zealand’s high reliance on foreign-trained psychiatrists points to an urgent need to address medical pipeline planning. We need to encourage medical students to consider psychiatry as a sound option for their specialist training.
“We know Covid is creating even more challenges. The mental health system can ill afford to lose any more doctors. Looking after psychiatrists is good for everyone’s mental health,” she says.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: New ASMS life member

Bay of Plenty anaesthetist and former ASMS Treasurer and National Secretary Dr Paul Wilson has been granted life membership of the Association at the 33rd ASMS Annual Conference.
First elected in 1999, he served on the National Executive for 22 years.
Born in the King Country, Dr Wilson started working as a consultant in the Bay of Plenty in 1995.
ASMS President Dr Julian Vyas says, “in speaking with colleagues who served on the Executive with him, they talk about Paul’s strong sense of altruism, his– at times – esoteric knowledge, his eye for fiscal detail and his ability to consider a situation from an unorthodox perspective, which often provided a novel insight into the matter at hand”.
Dr Wilson says the thing he is most proud of during his time on Executive is what ASMS has achieved to improve the terms and conditions supporting members who are new parents.
Instead of a gift to recognise his service, he has asked that a donation of equal value be made to the Wellington City Mission.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Health Coalition Aotearoa delivers giant letter to the Minister…

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Toi Mata Hauora was part of Health Care Aotearoa’s presentation to the Associate Minister of Health, Ayesha Verrall, in support of the draft Smokefree Action Plan 2025 on Thursday 18 November . The Coalition presented the Minister with an over-sized letter – signed by over 660 people and 60 organisations (including ASMS) – calling for full implementation of the Plan released in April 2021, including:

A comprehensive, multi-faceted approach.
The focus on eliminating ethnic and socio-demographic inequities in smoking and health harms.
The commitment to strengthening Māori governance of tobacco control.
Bold and potentially game-changing measures, particularly proposals to remove nearly all nicotine from smoked tobacco products and greatly reduce the retail availability of tobacco.
Create supportive environments to help people quit smoking, particularly those from priority groups.

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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Senior doctors relieved by swift Covid booster rollout

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora is pleased to see the Government moving so quickly on rolling out Covid boosters.
The Government has announced that boosters will be available from November 29th for those who received their second vaccination more than six months ago.
ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says many senior clinicians and frontline health workers who were vaccinated early this year were becoming increasingly concerned about waning Covid immunity.
She says today’s announcement will come as a relief especially with Covid spreading rapidly and the prospect of endemic Covid in our communities.
“It’s the right thing to do. Health staff are acutely aware of the need to access boosters so it’s great that they now have certainty around that”.
“For health staff who work in high-risk environments it’s important to know that they are being offered basic protection to keep them, their patients and their families safe,” she says.
Sarah Dalton says easy access to booster shots is also essential and DHBs and other health services need to ensure that the booster vaccinations are available to staff at their worksites.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: End of Life Choices Act | What you need to know

The End of Life Choice Act came into effect on 7th November. We asked experts from the Medical Assurance Society (MAS) for medico-legal advice to share with our members. They have provided a good overview of the legislation, along with information which you as senior clinicians may need or want to know.
Overview of the EOLC Act
Homicide and aiding and abetting suicide are unlawful under the Crimes Act 1961.  Notwithstanding this, from 7 November 2021 the EOLC Act will provide a process that, if followed, will allow ‘eligible’ people to choose to die and be assisted to die by a medical practitioner.

Who is involved in the EOLC Act process?
What is involved in the EOLC Act process?
Who is eligible for a medically assisted death?
What is the test for competence?
Pressure
Conscientious objection
Assisted dying must not be initiated by a health practitioner
Obligations if you are not a conscientious objector
Medical Council position
Summary
Where can I find out more?

Who is involved in the EOLC Act process?

The patient — patients who meet the EOLC Act’s tests for competence and eligibility can have a medically assisted death.
The attending medical practitioner (AMP) — any doctor can choose to be an AMP. The AMP is the doctor at the centre of the EOLC Act process who holds the main relationship with the patient in respect of the process; undertakes the initial assessment of eligibility; and works with the patient to complete an assisted death.

Independent medical practitioners (IMP) — these are doctors who have been pre-approved to undertake the required second assessment of eligibility.

Psychiatrists — these are pre-approved psychiatrists who can be asked to resolve any disagreements about competence.

Replacement medical practitioners — these are pre-approved doctors who are happy to fulfil the role of AMP and to whom patients can be referred.

Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand Group (SCENZ) — this is a group of experts appointed by the Director-General of Health. Their functions include to maintain lists of independent medical practitioners, psychiatrists and replacement medical practitioners; refer patients to replacement medical practitioners; prepare standards of care; and provide advice and practical assistance.

Registrar — this is a Ministry of Health employee tasked with collating information and checking that all the necessary forms have been properly completed before an assisted death can take place.

Review Committee — this is a committee of two health practitioners and a medical ethicist, whose functions include considering (after the fact) reports on each assisted death that occurs under the EOLC Act.

What is involved in the EOLC Act process?

A patient makes a request to their doctor for assistance with ending their life.
If the doctor is happy and able to be involved, they become the AMP and assume obligations to counsel and inform the patient. (If the doctor cannot or does not wish to be involved, they can refer the patient to SCENZ.  SCENZ will then refer the patient to a replacement medical practitioner.)
If the patient decides following counselling to proceed, the AMP gives a formal first opinion about the patient’s competence and eligibility.
If the AMP concludes the patient is eligible, SCENZ provides the name of an IMP to give a second competence and eligibility opinion. (Disagreements over competence can be resolved by SCENZ-recommended psychiatrist.)
If the first and second opinions find the patient to be eligible and competent, the AMP will help them choose the time, place and method for an assisted death.
The AMP is then responsible for prescribing the medication and overseeing its administration and the patient’s death. The patient must agree to receive the medication and must be competent at the time it is used.  They cannot rely on an advance directive or an enduring power of attorney for personal care and welfare.  A nurse practitioner may also prescribe and/or administer the medication under the AMP’s direction, although has no formal role in other parts of the process.
At various stages the AMP is required to complete forms and witness the patient’s agreement. These forms are checked by the Registrar, who must give final approval before the medicine is administered.
The whole process is expected to take approximately 2-4 weeks, but could be longer.
After an assisted death the AMP has reporting obligations.

The process will be fully publicly funded by the Ministry of Health, with co-payments prohibited.
Who is eligible for a medically assisted death?
To be eligible for a medically assisted death, a patient must:

be 18 years or older;
be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident;
suffer from a terminal illness that is likely to end the patient’s life within 6 months;
be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability;
experience unbearable suffering that cannot be relieved in a manner that the patient considers tolerable; and
be competent to make an informed decision about assisted dying.

What is the test for competence?
Under the EOLC Act, a patient is competent to make an informed decision about assisted dying if they:

understand information about the nature of assisted dying that is relevant to the decision; and
retain that information to the extent necessary to make the decision; and
use or weigh that information as part of the process of making the decision; and
communicate the decision in some way.

Patients must remain competent at each stage of the process, not just when the first and second opinions are given.  If a patient loses competence before the medicine to effect an assisted death has been administered, the process must stop.
Pressure
AMPs are required to do their best to ensure patients express their wishes about exercising the option of receiving assisted dying, free from pressure from any other person.  If pressure is reasonably suspected, the AMP must stop the process; inform the patient they cannot continue; and inform the Registrar of the suspected pressure by submitting a form.
What do all doctors need to know?
Conscientious objection
A health practitioner is not under any obligation to assist any person who wishes to exercise the option of receiving assisted dying under this Act if the health practitioner has a conscientious objection to providing that assistance to the person.
However, if you do have a conscientious objection and a patient informs you that they wish to exercise the option of assisted dying, you must tell the patient:

of the fact of your conscientious objection; and
of the patient’s right to ask SCENZ for the name and contact details of a replacement medical practitioner.

Conscientious objection does not need to be all or nothing.  You can be prepared to accept the role of AMP in some cases but not others.
Assisted dying must not be initiated by a health practitioner
A health practitioner who provides any health service to a person must not, in the course of providing that service:

initiate any discussion with the person that, in substance, is about assisted dying under the EOLC Act; or
make any suggestion to the person that, in substance, is a suggestion that the person exercise the option of receiving assisted dying under the EOLC Act.

This has implications for advance care planning, as doctors will need to avoid raising the topic of assisted dying while being alert to patients making a request to exercise that option.
Obligations if you are not a conscientious objector
Not being a conscientious objector does not mean you must accept the role of AMP if one of your patients informs you of their wish to exercise the option of receiving assisted dying.  GP practices and hospices are not required to offer assisted dying as a service, however there is an expectation each DHB will have a policy to manage request made by patients.  Further, the EOLC Act does not exclude the professional obligations of practitioners as set by the Medical Council.  Doctors should only take steps under the EOLC Act if they have the competence to do so in accordance with their professional standards.  If you do not wish to take on the role of AMP, patients should be advised how they can access assisted dying care.  This could be by a clinical referral to a colleague, or by contacting SCENZ for the name of an replacement medical practitioner.
If you are an employee or contractor, you should check with your employer/principal as to whether the practice/DHB offers assisted dying as a service.  It is expected most assisted deaths will occur in the community, at home.  Hospital patients can make requests however, and there may be patients whose care needs to transfer to a hospital setting part-way through the EOLC Act process.
If you do wish to be the AMP for one of your patients, you should reach out to SCENZ for advice and assistance — including more information about how the service is funded and how to access that funding.  For doctors who become the AMP for a patient, s 11 of the EOLC Act sets out your initial set of obligations.  These include:

Give a prognosis and information about assisted dying.
Stay in touch with the patient.
Ensure the patient understands their end-of-life care options.
Ensure the patient knows they can change their mind.
Encourage the patient to discuss their wish with others (but tell them they are not obliged to).
Ensure the patient has had the opportunity to discuss their wish with whom they choose.
Do your best (including by conferring with others) to ensure the patient expresses their wish free from pressure.
Record the actions taken.

Medical Council position
The Medical Council has not adopted a specific standard for the EOLC Act process.  It has however published an analysis of which existing standards may be relevant.  It is recommended that doctors familiarise themselves with this guidance statement.
Summary
It is a good idea to think in advance about how you will respond if assisted dying is raised with you — how you will engage with the person; are you equipped to have a respectful and appropriate conversation; and how you will fulfill your obligations under the EOLC Act?
Identify in advance the approach your organisation has taken, and who you can refer to inside the organisation.  DHBs are likely starting to adopt policies to implement the EOLC Act now, and there may be opportunities to provide feedback on draft policies.  If you are the owner of a practice, consider trying to reach a consensus view with your partners about how you will approach the new law.
If you are not a conscientious objector, consider accessing the LearnOnline training offered by the Ministry of Health.
Where can I find out more?
The Ministry of Health website  includes a range of detailed information about the implementation of the EOLC Act, the delivery of assisted dying, and the way the service will be funded.  There are also resources for health practitioners, including guidance and training.
Dr Margaret Abercrombie, is Medicolegal Consultant at Medical Protection and Adam Holloway is a partner at Wotton Kearney.
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Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: The moral injury of keeping patients waiting

Overseeing clinical work that involves most people missing out on timely care goes hard against the grain of medical training and ethics. Making the least bad decision about a patient’s treatment wears a person down and significantly pushes up burnout risk. Read our opinion piece.

Moral injury: knowing patient care could be better but being unable to make the necessary changes due to constraints that are beyond [a doctor’s] control.
It’s a definition senior hospital doctors are well-acquainted with.
Doctors care deeply for their patients. As part of becoming a doctor, they all must sign the Hippocratic Oath by which they agree to treat the ill to the best of their abilities and do no harm.
Our members – doctors and dentists working in public hospitals – tell us that this is increasingly hard to achieve.  Many are burnt-out, fed up working in stretched environments where there are more patients than they can see, where they are covering unfilled vacancies, care is routinely rationed, and short staffing is the norm not the exception.
We now hear reports that patients from Southland and Otago may be sent to neighbouring regions for their surgeries as Southern DHB tries to deal with the hundreds of patients lingering on waiting lists, facing unacceptably long delays. Those are all patients living with pain or illness which is treatable.
Covid lockdowns have created additional delays, but more to the point, they have amplified existing problems and frustrations.
Covid backlogs can’t explain away the endemic staffing shortages which mean there aren’t enough hospital beds or theatre capacity, not to mention the fact that elective surgeries continue to be pushed back because staff are swamped trying to deal with the growing number of patients presenting with urgent or acute needs.
A contributing factor in Southland, which doctors believe has never been properly accounted for, is what they describe as a ‘staggering’ rise in trauma-based accidents and hospitalisations due to the increase in adventure- based sports in the past ten years or so. Well before Covid came along elective surgeries were being routinely cancelled as surgeons tried to juggle very limited acute theatre space.
Last year the Government gave DHBs an extra $282 million to clear the Covid related backlog of deferred elective operations, but that’s a hard ask when you don’t have the staff and hospitals are already running at 100% capacity.
It’s a domino effect. Patients can’t get surgery if doctors can’t access theatre time. Doctors can’t access theatre time because of dire nursing shortages both in theatres and on the wards. Allied health staff such as anaesthetic technicians and physiotherapists are in desperately short supply with dozens of positions vacant.
We’ve been told that surgeons have been ready and waiting to get patients through the door but some weeks they have only been able to do one or two operations due to inadequate staffing levels.
It harks back to moral injury. Overseeing clinical work that involves most people missing out on timely care goes hard against the grain of medical training and ethics. Making the least bad decision about a patient’s treatment wears a person down and significantly pushes up burnout risk.
At the heart of all this is a longstanding failure to invest in the health workforce.
The fact that serious discussions were being had about downgrading Southland Hospital’s maternity service because the clinical director of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Service could not get back into the country, serves to illustrate this further and shows a worryingly short-sighted grasp on deep-seated health need. We shouldn’t be shutting services down, but building them up
The service is perilously short of both doctors and midwives.
It is magical thinking if the Government and health managers believe we can continue to burn through health workers and more will pop up.
What is needed is proper workforce planning and the re-building of a health system that people want to work in. That means valuing and investing in the health care workers we do have by offering pay and conditions to encourage recruitment and retention.
It also means some honesty from health leaders about the real state of health need and the limits on our system’s ability to meet that need.
The longer the Government waits to act on critical understaffing in our hospitals the harder the fix will be.
The perfect storm we see in Southland is just a microcosm of cracks appearing across the whole of our health system. We all see it – some of us live it day to day. Now it’s time to step up and fix it. It’s time to remember that our public health system (and the people at its heart) belongs to us all. As taxpayers and health system users, it’s time to hold the planners and funders to account. Investing in the people who keep our health system running is in investment in all our health.
– As published in The Southland Times and on Stuff – 3 November 2021
 
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