Health Minister Simeon Brown hid advice against more health privatization – why are you allowing him to destroy public health?
Unbelievable!
Warnings about serious risks in surgery outsourcing blanked out by Simeon Brown’s office
The health minister has been warned of a large number of serious risks around outsourcing thousands of surgeries to private hospitals to cut public waitlists.
But Simeon Brown’s office withheld most of the information from the public.
Two versions of the same memo about the risks and how to deal with them were released to RNZ – one heavily blanked out by the minister, one not – by Health New Zealand (HNZ).
The full memo from HNZ warned it might be “tempting” to aim for “speedier” cuts to wait times, but that going too fast risked significantly distorting the system in four ways.
“Any degradation of the ability to maintain staffing in public will significantly threaten overall production and hospital flow, including for acute work.”
This was blanked out of the Brown memo, as were all the details of all four risks.
TDB has warned you and warned you and warned you that this Government is purposely underfunding public health for the private health sector, and here we have the Minister of Health hiding the risks of more private health and censoring it so you don;t realise what National are secretly doing!
How mush must you hate Jacinda and be so warped by post-Covid bitterness to think what National are doing to our public health system is acceptable?
Why are you purposely sabotaging yourself?
Why are you cutting your nose off to spite your face?
Because you have had your post covid bitterness manipulated and warped by social media hate algorithms and right wing hate trolls!
Allowing National to strangle the common good for their donors interests just because you are still bitter at Jacinda speaks ill of you and your mana.
This Government purposely under funded Public health so that they could manufacture a crisis and slash costs so as to fund their tax cuts and landlord loop holes!
In the Budget, National allocated just 2.9% increase to health services but inflation was 3.3% and population growth 2.6% while an ageing population adds more to costs.
National gave 2.9% for health but we needed 8% to stand still, that under funding has manufactured a crisis National are attempting to use privatisation to solve.
Man up and start considering it beyond your hate eco chamber and question how easily you’ve been manipulated for corporate interests.
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New Zealand wants Nordic levels of public services with Andorran levels of tax. One of those has to change.
Add in the Government, it needs to change.
Yes, you get what you pay for. But the private route will cost more.
Privatisation of health is doomed to failure. Just look how successful the most privatised Health (USA) in the World is? Don’t sit smugly while the system in the USA goes from bad to even worse under Trump and his MAGA flunkies, because if Simpleton Simeon gets his way we will follow suit. I say renege!
Private hospitals will be given two- to three-year contracts guaranteeing high volume, low complexity cases
Before these contracts are signed is the time for Labour to announce they will undo this once back in power.
All eyes are now on you Labour.
Will you (Labour) defend our public health system?
Labour can either defend our public health system or not
Either way, how Labour responds to this will send a clear message to voters
Disappointingly (but not surprisingly) there is no press release from Labour on this privatisation of health.
Labour, the party the left can count on to let them down
And there is also no press release on this from the Greens.
The public health system is under attack and the opposition are missing in action.
Say bye-bye to public health
The public health system needs billions to improve existing infrastructure whilst also increasing the size of new builds due to the nature of our immigration system. If you keep taking more and more in you need bigger and bigger infrastructure and staffing. Is Labour that bold? We know for certain National aren’t although Bill English was bold enough to give his wife a contract…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pms-wife-on-board-of-organisation-that-won-million-dollar-suicide-prevention-contract/D7KMZ3NOGGVBWROEJEWHDJFFTE/
Why?
Ok, so we’ll all make a submission to a select or legislative committee or write to our MP and watch all objections get ignored.
Unless you makes large campaign donations your objections fall on deaf ears.
This is the way the neoliberal system works. It’s all bought and sold.
“Wah wah wah, I can’t talk to people, or get off my butt and organise. So I’ll just complain.” Come on Richard Chritie, grow up, learn a small amount of history, and be an organizer rather than a moaner. Politicians will act if they fear the mob more than their corporate lords.
You feel we have become too well-mannered or too frightened.
Look at the fuss van Velden made because someone called her a rude name.
You think the mob approach would frighten them. I don’t know. They are so thick-skinned, whatever sense of shame they were born with, has gone.
They are not above treating a mob extremely badly and cruelly, as with everything they do.
Their reaction would be under-handed and extreme.
I feel even the police might be squeamish about what they would be ordered to do to a proper mob.
Our govt. ministers only appear civilized, they are not.
I’m merely explaining to dreamers such as yourself why so little is done.
Organise to do what? make a submission? sign a petition? march in a day protest that’s as effective as spit on a hot plate? It’s simply ignored.
Not the case with the interests of big business donors, they get to dictate and enjoy tailored Ministerial advice and to ghost-write policy.
The reality is that such traditional approaches no longer work. It’s simply ignored and then forgotten by voters as a swill bucket of dog whistles and culture wars are dished up as distractions at the next election round.
Mr Chairman.
Once again as always every major party and the public until now either didn’t give a damn and only concentrated on the hospitals which is the last port of call in the health system.
Primary care and medicines funding has always been treated as a poor cousin until 2018.
My efforts and Patient Voice Aotearoa turned that on its head and the public finally has woken up.
The last two elections health as been in the top 3 issues now it is #1.
The Greens health budget and ACC budget policy need to be adopted by Labour full stop.
Nothing else will do .
More tinkering on them typical labour slowly slowly bullshit wont do.
That’s what the public want substantial primary care and medicines funding change and therefore take pressure off the hospitals.
Yes, primary care is important. So to is a healthy lifestyle.
I like the Greens health, ACC and dental plan.
However, in regards to ACC they should have aimed for 80% of the living wage and not the minimum.
Nonetheless, we still want a public health system when it comes to our hospitals
Private profit robs us of funding that could have gone to further improving the public health system
Forget Simpleton Simeon, he is a fucking clueless little boy. A bank teller in charge of health, says it all really.
Degradating Peter to become dependent on price setting Paul.