Letters: Get rid of managers to fix health system; only provide school lunches to kids who need them

'Problems with our health services date back over 30 years.'

Letters to the Editor

The cure for our ailing health system

Problems with our health services date back over 30 years, with neither political party doing more than fiddling with the problem they view as too big to deal with. Neither is looking at the origin of the problem.

With the introduction of neo-liberal policies, a new layer of people was introduced into all workforces, that of “managers” who had no background in the area they managed. They even dreamt up a special title for themselves “generic managers”. It involved lots of new jargon, elite pay scales, daily meetings and of course the ubiquitous “data”.

Once they filled all the roles previously occupied by people with knowledge and experience it was necessary to call in “consultants” - at huge costs - to advise them on all the stuff they didn’t know.

To move forward is very simple. These elite managers gave themselves unlimited powers. So reverse the power structure, it could be done overnight. At present, the wrong people are being fired by the inbuilt absurd management power structure.

So frontline workers get to choose the people, administrators, office staff and managers directly above them. They know who is important.

Like you can’t do without that wonderful person who finds all the files ready for clinic and without which, the clinic grinds to a halt. The manager sitting in an office, not even in the same building, doesn’t.

Those people in their turn, select the managers/workers above them who are necessary and so on. Give the power of running the show back to people who do the work, not a bunch of managers/staff completely isolated from the actual work.

Helen Overton, retired GP/ED doctor, Mt Eden.

Foreign conflicts

The United States has a long history of involvement in foreign conflicts since World War II. Mostly, the US has failed to meet its objective.

In Korea, the result was a stalemate and truce that still persists. Vietnam was a long and expensive battle where the US and its allies were eventually defeated.

The one and only success story was Operation Desert Storm in 1991 where the US and its allies pushed Iraq out of Kuwait. Since 9/11 in 2001 America has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. In each case they won the war but lost the peace. They have not been able to establish stable democratic governments.

Isis developed in Iraq in response to the brutality in US prisons. The Taliban regrouped and seized control as soon as the US retreated from Afghanistan.

After three long, expensive years of war in Ukraine, that battle is starting to look like Vietnam or Korea. It’s unlikely that the rest of Nato can repulse Russia without precipitating a nuclear holocaust.

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of military assistance to Ukraine may be ultimately the best option. Only history can judge.

Peter D Graham. Helensville.

Finding empathy

Several correspondents say “parents should provide lunch for their kids”, ignoring the fact that everyone in NZ agrees with that statement.

No one is arguing that. What is being discussed is the question “so what happens when they don’t?”. ”Well then, the parents should be punished” they continue, again ignoring the question.

You may or may not hold the opinion that those parents should face consequences, but unless at the same time you’re presenting solutions for the kids who should be at the heart of the discussion, that opinion may be disregarded.

Many fondly recall their tasty and nutritious packed lunch from home. Please reflect on how lucky you were to receive such care - and find empathy for those kids who haven’t had the luck to land in similar circumstances.

Adam Wright, Mt Roskill.

Digest differently

One of the problems that does not seem to be addressed when discussing school lunches is that children are not at school every day.

Food needs to be supplied at weekends and holidays so in some families it must make budgeting more difficult to have a healthy meal provided on some days. The other question is whether it would not be better to provide breakfasts.

Children definitely learn better if they are properly nourished and with lunches they have the whole morning hungry and are at peak nutrition for only a couple of hours a day.

Perhaps the whole question of food for needy children should be looked at in a different way.

Stephanie Watson, Epsom.

Target need

If David Seymour’s goal is to reduce the cost of the school lunch programme there is one really simple move that could reduce costs and improve quality: only target the students who need it.

When Labour introduced school lunches, they decided to give all students the meals to avoid embarrassment and stigma. That sounds nice, but in an era of cost-costing it is a lot of money that could be spent on improving the quality of the lunches or distributing more to the kids who actually need them.

If parents can afford it, they should be making their own child’s lunches. This would improve the school lunches for those who need them.

Robert Clarke, Albany.