Category: New Zealand Associations and Organisaitons

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

Headline: Hopes high for positive change following mental health and addictions review

The Mental Health and Addiction inquiry report released this month by Health Minister David Clark is the most significant review of the sector since the 1990s and looks set to lead to an overhaul of services. It’s prompted discussion about the role of the state and health professionals in an issue with wide social and community drivers. In an article for ASMS, Wellington forensic psychiatrist Justin Barry-Walsh argues both for broad social change and an immediate increase in resources to deal with pressures in the sector. 

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

Headline: NZMA supports call for safe staffing levels

 The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) supports the call by Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) for safe staffing levels for senior doctors and urges the Government to address the workload pressures and burnout for all doctors regardless of whether they are working in our hospitals or in the community.

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

Headline: We’re wasting public money by overpaying Treasury analysts

OPINION: The Treasury made major changes to its recruitment strategies a few years ago, downplaying the recruitment of economists. With the Treasury running the ruler over current pay demands in the rest of the public sector, have they been equally tough on themselves?

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

Headline: Middlemore’s $80m boost: Health Minister awaits business case

Middlemore Hospital says it has done well from a government funding boost of $80 million, despite the Counties Manukau District Health Board estimating a year ago it needed more than $1.6 billion to upgrade all its facilities. The funding will be put into four projects at the south Auckland hospital and the Manukau Superclinic. The $80 million compares to earlier funding announcements for other DHBs – Auckland Hospital got more than three times that amount, and North Shore $200 million. David Clark is the Minister of Health, he joins Guyon Espiner in the Auckland studio.

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

Headline: Middlemore $80m boost a good start – Gosche

Middlemore Hospital’s latest cash injection won’t fix all its rotting buildings and it pales into comparison with what other district health boards in Auckland have got. Yesterday the government announced that Counties Manukau DHB would get $80 million to start fixing its building and infrastructure problems. RNZ reporter Phil Pennington asked the DHB’s chair, Mark Gosche, whether that would make much of a difference, given previous estimates that up to $1.6 billion is needed to get the hospital up to scratch.

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

Headline: Auckland public health takes on junk food ads

Auckland public health officials are on the attack over advertising junk food to children. The Regional Public Health Service has just laid a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about an ad for Kinder Surprise chocolate, saying it specifically targets youngsters. But even if it’s upheld, health officials say there won’t be any real consequences.

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

Headline: Otago medical students in limbo after exam cheating claims

Third-year medical students at the University of Otago don’t yet know if they’ll have to re-sit their exams after allegations of cheating. In an end-of-year practical exam, students were asked to demonstrate a clinical skill, such as examining a patient. Students were examined in batches and the Otago Medical School says students in the first session told the others what was in store. The university is now investigating which students cheated and what the consequences will be. Caitlin Barlow-Groome is the president of the Otago University Students Association. She talks to Susie Ferguson.

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

Headline: Auckland children wait months for dental treatment

Auckland children with severe and often extremely painful teeth problems are having to wait more than eight months for treatment – double what they should be. Under Ministry of Health standards, all patients requiring specialist appointments should be seen within four months. But Auckland’s regional dental health service can’t meet the timeframe.

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

Headline: Why Doctors Hate Their Computers

On a sunny afternoon in May, 2015, I joined a dozen other surgeons at a downtown Boston office building to begin sixteen hours of mandatory computer training. We sat in three rows, each of us parked behind a desktop computer. In one month, our daily routines would come to depend upon mastery of Epic, the new medical software system on the screens in front of us. The upgrade from our home-built software would cost the hospital system where we worked, Partners HealthCare, a staggering $1.6 billion, but it aimed to keep us technologically up to date.

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

Headline: DHBs support fatigued surgeons continuing to work

The new collective agreement on offer to a small group of surgical registrars represented by Specialty Trainees of New Zealand(STONZ) makes clear the country’s twenty District Health Boards (DHBs) have a total disregard for the health and wellbeing of their doctors, and through them the safety of their patients.  Under the misguided assumption that an unfounded risk to training trumps the health and safety of doctors, the DHBs are endorsing a collective agreement that will see fatigued surgeons continuing to operate on patients.

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