Fix health system, back doctors and nurses

 Pauline E Tangiora

What has happened to the reform of our health system? Getting this right should have been the priority leading up to July last year when the district health boards were disestablished.

So many people are falling by the wayside. It is not only the clients who are confused but also the doctors and nurses. They are doing sterling work to look after their patients. The onset of winter will bring extra loads of work for them to do.

Last Wednesday I had to go for an X-ray at Gisborne Hospital — not realising that was also the day that Gisborne nurses were striking for an hour. One could see the strain on the staff.

The pressures the medical fraternity are going through, both doctors and nurses, is not acceptable.

It is time that those who sit behind their desks in Wellington put into action a fair way of servicing the medical field, whether it is by resourcing it better or whatever it takes.

Moving away from the hospital boards should not have happened until plans for the new system were in place, as more and more uncertainties are not needed in this hard world of looking after the country’s health needs.

The recently announced Ministry for Disabled People is another load on the medical world, without the basic resources being in place.

What has happened to all the millions of dollars put aside for the care of mentally unwell people? If the money is not spent, why is it being held for so long? And why has it not been spent when there are clients young and old struggling to survive? I hear our suicide rates are not getting any better.

One should ask that the mental health of the people in this country be prioritised and resourced according to need.

Everything seems to be categorised into “Mental Health” but it is clear that psychologists do not have enough time to spend with some clients. People have said to me: “The medical world don’t want to listen to me, and I don’t seem to get the respect and time that I need to heal.”

It is all very well building more houses but if the wellbeing of the person is not given the same priority, what will our community be like in a few years time?

Maybe it is time that we go back to the old ways of the “Matron” and “Doctors” making the decisions in the hospitals. They are the ones with their feet on the ground.

Let us get away from consultants and bureaucrats from the different ministries making these decisions, and use that money to better fund the medical professionals — so they don’t need to resort to striking to be heard about the dangers they have to deal with to look after us, the citizens of Aotearoa.

Finally, we do not need to import doctors and nurses if we care and support our own doctors and nurses in the work they are doing, and compensate them appropriately.