GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – The Second Charles Dickens Era
If the C19th author Charles Dickens were alive today he’d have much to write about, because the old wealthy and the new wealthy have managed to recapture our economy and take us back to those dark times before the social welfare system was created.
I was reminded of how much we have slipped back to the days when we thought there are deserving and undeserving people in our society measured by your wealth) when I recently came across this interview I recorded 4 years ago with Philip Bagshaw- a General Surgeon who was instrumental in setting up a Charity Hospital in Christchurch.
Just have a think about those two words “Charity Hospital ” for a moment.
What the hell’s gone wrong with our public health system where people now have to rely on a Charity Hospital to relieve their suffering?
If you want to get a chilling glimpse into our hospital system check out this 2 minute clip.
Please share with your whanau and friends because our health system is excluding too many of us from operations, procedures and new medicines simply because we do not have private medical cover or the means to pay for it.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
You get user pays now? Its a fool who votes for his own destruction
“Its a fool who votes for his own destruction”
Seemingly, there is a lot of it about.
Our ‘system’ was designed for a much smaller population and one in which there was a lot less persistent unemployment.
It was also one with more emphasis on health rather than ‘fixing sickness and disability.’ A bit more community intervention -usually by women as District nurses.
Once upon a time women had few work options available. Nursing of some kind was a respectable option. Dental nurses. Karitane nurses. Plunket nurses… Women who left school at 14 could go into nursing and train on the job.
That’s no longer an option – but the system still acts as if that’s the employment environment. Before the 1960s.
There were also waiting lists – and rationing, usually for the working class – regardless of ethnicity.
Those who can pay, do. Those who can’t, suffer.
The system is geriatric, riddled with anachronisms and attitudes at odds with IT and better equipment.
A big Augean stables waiting for someone to put the river through it and reset the entire system from training, to the way services are provided in a long skinny country with awkward roading.