Dialogue: Life and health must not be traded

By CHRISTINE RANKIN

How much value do we place on life? Well, we know the answer. It's about $4 million, according to Transit New Zealand. That's apparently how they value roading improvements, especially for accident black spots.

Perhaps we should use the same yardstick to measure the cost of some of the black spots in our health system.

Here we are sending very sick women for radiation therapy in Australia - their only hope of receiving the treatment they so urgently need. While it is true that the Government pays for the fare and the treatment, even for a support person, only 10 per cent of women who require that type of treatment go to Australia.

This small proportion is testament to the enormous difficulties a woman must face being away from home and having a life-threatening disease.

On the surface, going to Australia is a good idea. In practice, its application is limited.

So what's the next solution? Give these women double or triple doses of radiation at one treatment? That's a good idea. They won't have to come back as often, so there will be more opportunity for others to receive the treatment.

But nobody really knows the effect of such doses of radiation on healthy tissue. It has all the characteristics that Heath Robinson would be proud of.

Perhaps we should take the approach of Transit. What is the cost of the delay in treatment, of going to Australia, the side-effects of high radiation doses? What are the downstream costs of inadequate or ineffective treatment?

Maybe it would be better to take out the nasty bend or the narrow bridge, as Transit would, and eliminate the hazard.

This problem has arisen because of the lack of radiation therapists. They are talking of striking because of poor work conditions and pay. This is self-evident because there are not enough of them and they aren't treated well enough to keep them here in NZ.

When does it become more economic, not to mention morally appropriate, to pay more and provide a satisfactory service, than to skimp and stretch a small amount of money over a great deal of need and suffer the costs of delayed, inconvenient and downright dangerous treatment? I imagine our notional $4 million would go quite a long way to remedy this situation, at least for starters.

Where are our priorities? We don't seem to be having too much of a problem finding money for earnest but debatable priorities, such as the Kiwibank, paid parental leave, free computers to dubious students and other projects.

We elect governments to set priorities and to do so in line with public attitudes. I believe, in health, we have been sold a line by successive governments that there just isn't enough money for health, that it's a bottomless pit.

There is a remarkably high level of public acceptance, if not agreement, on the woefully inadequate health system. Politicians agree how awful it is but plead lack of funds and nothing changes. It seems we just have to accept it as a condition of living in this country.

In reality, we don't place value on life. We don't prioritise life. Life and health are becoming expendable with, it appears, women the first to get the rough end of the stick.

There's no money in health, not because there's no money but because there are no votes in health. It is seen by politicians as bad political spending because they get no credit or guaranteed re-election results. We hear that the Government polls the public all the time and that must be the conclusion.

We have a health system that places an incredible and increasing moral burden on our health workers. They have to operate a system that does the best for those who are treated and the delivery of health is excellent. The problem is getting to the head of the queue, even getting into the queue itself and getting the most appropriate treatment.

Transit, more than anyone, knows that the odd sign and minor works at an accident black spot generally do little to reduce the human cost. The solution to a black spot is proper road alignment or building a deviation - in other words, investment in prevention.

We are going to get this attitude into our health system only if we demand it and say that life and health are a priority and not to be traded.