Category: New Zealand Associations and Organisaitons

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

Headline: Southern DHB: 24/7 maternity facilities in rural regions ‘not possible’

Southern DHB CEO Chris Fleming joins Checkpoint live to discuss concerns about a lack of maternity facilities in the Southland and Otago regions. This follows several incidents in recent months, including a Lumsden mother who gave birth in an ambulance on the side of the road and a Wanaka mum who gave birth on an office floor.

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

Headline: The business of health care depends on exploiting doctors and nurses

You are at your daughter’s recital and you get a call that your elderlypatient’s son needs to talk to you urgently. A colleague has a family emergency and the hospital needs you to work a double shift. Your patient’s M.R.I. isn’t covered and the only option is for you to call the insurance company and argue it out. You’re only allotted 15 minutes for a visit, but your patient’s medical needs require 45.

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

Headline: Govt’s $2b for mental health: will it work?

The centrepiece of last week’s budget was $1.9 billion to help the one in five New Zealanders who experience mental illness or significant mental distress.  New Zealand has persistently high suicide rates – particularly for young people and Maori, and widespread harm from alcohol and drug addiction.

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

Headline: Let’s talk about the art of living and dying well

It isn’t until my patient dies that I calculate we have known each other for 10 years, the time it took for her recurrent cancer to extinguish her life. I use the word “extinguish” deliberately, for her two young children should have had her for longer. Her devoted husband sends me a peaceful photo of her from the hospice and details of her funeral. I choke – and tell myself that I have a full clinic of patients.

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

Headline: First baby born at Lumsden maternal and child hub

The fact that a second baby has been born in northern Southland while the mother was on her way to a primary birthing unit is proof that the Lumsden Maternity Centre should have stayed open, Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker says.

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

Headline: World Medical Association welcomes decision on burnout

The World Medical Association has given a warm welcome to the decision by the World Health Assembly to classify work related burnout as a problem that influences health status and to include it in the new version of the international code of diseases 

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

Headline: Government policy makes people ill – and the NHS pays the price

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has been remarkably successful in prising more money for the health service out of the government, but short-term ministerial thinking about the service and its resources has resulted in an unedifying, dysfunctional scramble for cash in austerity Britain. Finally, though, ideas are emerging that could change all that.

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

Headline: Government’s mental health response a positive step forward; now for the detail

“The Government’s response to its mental health review appears to be a significant step in the right direction but we now need the detail to see how much of a difference it will truly make,” says Lyndon Keene, Director of Policy and Research at the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

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

Headline: Syphilis outbreak shows decision to cut sexual health doctors clearly short-sighted

The struggle to contain Auckland’s syphilis outbreak is hardly surprising given the flawed decision by the city’s health bosses several years ago to cut the number of senior sexual health doctors in the region, says Sarah Dalton, Industrial Officer at the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

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

Headline: ‘We have pretty much nothing’ – Te Anau maternity services

Te Anau residents say promised maternity services haven’t been delivered, leaving mothers and midwives in a precarious situation. The Southern District Health Board announced a maternal and child hub for the town after downgrading the Lumsden Maternity Centre. But the hub isn’t ready and residents say they’ve been left in the dark about why.

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