Are we setting our ED targets too low? Photo / George Heard
ED targets are a failure to start with
There is much angst being thrown about concerning the abject failure to meet targets for hospital ED waiting times (Sept 1). But the failure is not just in missing the targets but the failure to set and meet a half-decent target in the first place.
A target of 95% of people waiting no more than six hours at their ED is already an abject failure and a disgrace. Since when did a six-hour wait seem like a reasonable time for the sick and infirm to have to wait to be dealt with at the ED?
Shameful that we are not employing all the nurses who have recently graduated but letting them wander off overseas. Shameful that nurses and doctors have had to resort to strike action to get half-decent wages.
C’mon New Zealand, let’s demand proper wait times and decent public health services in hospital EDs.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
Nurses’ workload
It seems every few months there is a report bemoaning the long waiting times for patients in New Zealand hospitals.
The Government is setting “targets” to try to force the staff to work faster.
These targets fail to mention the two obvious reasons for the situation. The first is there are not enough doctors and nurses working in ED. The other obvious reason is too many people are arriving at the ED because they cannot afford to see a doctor in the community.
Again, the reason is not enough doctors and nurses working.
Lydia Sulima, Auckland.
Superannuation debate
I would like to raise the issue of the affordability of national superannuation. It is quite possible New Zealand will look to progressively raise the age of eligibility from 65 to 67 over the coming decades.
This would save some money but at a cost to women, and to people with a lower life expectancy, predominantly Māori and Pasifica people. These would also be pensioners whose sole income is national superannuation and those who would be renting rather than owning their own homes.
It is likely that the age of eligibility will be raised, but it is important that this is accompanied by an increase in the level of super paid to the less well off. This would be affordable if New Zealand means-tested national super, something that would bring us into line with other economies.
Harry Allen, Maraetai Beach.
What’s your worst beach?
Perhaps in the interest of bettering the quality of Auckland’s beaches, it might be fruitful to have a worst-beach competition.
In such a venture, I would like to nominate Mellons Bay which is dominated by badly troweled concrete stormwater drains covered in ugly moss and slime. These drains, located at the base of the cliffs, disgorge questionable material into the ocean. Questionable, as I suspect much of the mixture of slash, broken twigs and rotting vegetation that lines the beach and makes multiudinous dog walkers trip on a daily basis also makes cleaning up dog poo an almost impossible task, all of which may be responsible for the pong over the beach when the wind isn’t blowing.
Any takers for a worse beach?
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
The ‘Reset’ didn’t work
Having watched Christopher Luxon, David Seymour and Erica Stanford deliver their latest attempt at luring overseas investors to spend their money in Aotearoa New Zealand, one thing has become clear. This administration has simply failed to deliver on the promises made pre-election and is now desperately trying to think of ways to help itself out of a crisis of its own making.
This looks to me like the last straw to be grabbed at the last chance saloon. Our country is now for sale. The “Reset” didn’t work.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
The importance of the humanities
Universities Minister Shane Reti’s utilitarian framing of universities as engines for economic output and workplace readiness neglects their deeper purpose: to cultivate critical thought, ethical reflection, and human understanding.
Philosophers like John Dewey and Paulo Freire argued that education should foster autonomy, social engagement, and the capacity to shape a just society, not merely serve market demands.
Aotearoa New Zealand has high rates per capita of infanticide, drug and alcohol dependence, depression and youth suicide statistics. Our nation needs cutting-edge critical thinking to understand and develop solutions for these other deeply concerning social statistics.
By sidelining the humanities, Reti’s view risks reducing students to economic units, ignoring the university’s role in nurturing the moral and cultural imagination essential to the flourishing of humanity.
Russell Hoban, PhD student, University of Auckland, Humanities.