Letters: We should be proud of all hospital staff; a Tāmaki Makaurau by-election must be held after Manurewa Marae inquiry

'We should be proud of, and immensely grateful to, all hospitals and their staff.'

Letters to the Editor

We should be proud of our hospitals

Your disturbing news about the country’s emergency departments (Feb 17) included that of North Shore Hospital, which is where I found myself on Monday morning.

Despite your gloomy report I was seen and assessed within the permissible timeframe and within 30-45 minutes of assessment I was in a ward, waiting for a bed, which I thought was fantastic service. I sat and watched the harried doctors and nurses run around trying their best to attend to everyone, with some patients being difficult and unappreciative.

The friendly, yet professional service they render under such trying conditions is incredible, but I want to mention the role of other unsung heroes – the hospital porters and administrative staff. Whether it was 2pm or 2am the porters wheeled me around the myriad passages with friendly smiles - while avoiding all the beds lining the passages.

As the porter pushed me to my next appointment or ward we passed hordes of receptionists, clerks and typists who also toil long hours and without whose vital, yet unsung, roles the whole hospital administration would collapse. When I was discharged two days later I was given a full discharge report before leaving the hospital, which can only mean that the paper trail that followed me around the hospital was superbly handled.

We should be proud of, and immensely grateful to, all hospitals and their staff - and the politicians over the past 30 years should be ashamed of their negligence in allowing hospital staffing and infrastructure to sink to this disgraceful level.

Johan Slabbert, Warkworth.

Tāmaki Makaurau by-election

Unsurprisingly, John Tamihere is crying racism when an inquiry is conducted into electoral fraud and that Manurewa Marae was targeted because they are Māori (Feb 19).

An inquiry was launched because many people, including marae workers, made complaints about what they saw occurring at the marae and knew it was illegal. Tamihere said he welcomed and encouraged the investigation when it was announced, but has since changed his tune when the report didn’t go his way.

Tamihere has admitted that census forms were photocopied, can he or anyone in his circle explain why this was done when there is absolutely no requirement for this to take place?

There is no way anyone can reasonably argue that this election interference didn’t earn Te Pāti Māori at least 48 votes. A by-election has to be held.

Mark Young, Ōrewa.

Reinventing cities

New Zealand needs to start thinking of ways to give younger people a reason to stay and try and attract those who have left a reason to return.

So what is needed? The most important is better wages, otherwise more and more will continue the exodus - especially our frontline workers. One thing that works well for Australia is the option of multiple cities to live and work in, New Zealand may not have this luxury. We can however improve our cities.

A lot of our city centres can be described as boring, have outdated infrastructure and a lack of vision. In the medium to long term we could try turning things around by building new infrastructure, this in turn might help stimulate our economy and most importantly create jobs.

We already have a success story with this and that example is Christchurch. They have reinvented themselves, created jobs, new business and built new up to date infrastructure. Last August the Whangārei council released their proposed strategy. Whangārei seems to be the next city trying to reinvent themselves.

Surely more cities will come up with similar ideas? Create new jobs, build new infrastructure and attract people to the area. Yes reinventing our cities can come with risks but we may have to take some risks to keep some of youngest and brightest. In the meantime a lot of them continue to leave this fantastic country.

Tristan Cullen, Wānaka.

Missing the point

In the wake of Destiny Church members’ attack on a Pride event at Te Atatu Library, I was struck by the number of public officials who referenced the right to free speech and condemned what they saw as a protest that got out of hand.

While these statements were well-meaning, turning this into a free-speech issue misses an important point. Unlike other groups of protesters, Brian Tamaki and his followers are not objecting to government policy or corporate decision-making; they are challenging the right of LGBT+ people to exist as members of our community.

Their behaviour is not merely a matter of free speech, but an attack on basic human rights. It should be treated as such.

Jennifer Ashton, Birkdale.

PM and power

The Prime Minister talks of “growth, growth, growth” but the chance of this happening in the short term is most unlikely because we do not generate enough reliable electricity to meet population growth, increased business needs, and seasonable weather fluctuations (Feb 19). With the current power companies fluffing around with wind and solar generation this situation will not change any time soon. Time for the PM to step up and make a serious change to generation policies.

Derek Paterson, Sunnyhill.