For a hospital our size, it's not wise use of the taxpayers' dollar to fund separate teams for three shifts a day when acute surgery may not be required.
Whanganui District Health Board ensures the allocation of on-call time is spread as evenly as practicable among those required to participate as per the nursing collective agreement.
The board is always willing to put up its hand when we get something wrong but we didn't in this case. It saddens me that our local newspaper seems to want to discredit us unnecessarily.
Patient safety and quality is at the forefront of everything we do and that includes making sure our staff are safe.
Staff are aware that if they are fatigued, they can request support and this does happen from time to time. The management team in theatre are encouraged to ensure they are proactive in ensuring the on-call teams know they can do this should they have more acute cases than expected.
JULIE PATTERSON, Chief Executive, Whanganui Distict Health Board
Money-go-round
Apart from Social Credit, all the political parties are committed to debt-funding our public sector - that is, borrowing on the capital markets - the debts to be serviced mainly by future generations under the pretext of inter-generational equity.
There are three aspects of this borrowing.
Firstly there is Crown debt - surely a misnomer as "Crown" is supposed to stand for this nation's sovereignty while "debt" means subservience to foreign money-lenders.
The problem is our politicians think there is a government ATM machine. We pay our taxes into it, then the Minister of Finance allocates them in the annual Budget. It can't be found in Treasury - Treasury is not a bank.
Over the road is a bank, called the RBNZ and it is equipped to credit-fund our public education, railroads, health boards etc, but that is not the policy of any of the parties currently in Parliament.
Another way to burden future generations with debt is per our state-owned enterprises, a cunning way the Lange/Labour government found to put government responsibilities under the corporate model so requiring them to borrow heavily from private lenders who were, around the 1987 financial meltdown, pressuring governments to give them access to secure returns from essential infrastructures like electricity distribution.
A similar story when Rodney Hide's Local Government Borrowing Bill was passed in 2011, with full support from Labour and the Greens. The Local Government Funding Agency proposed in the bill has, to date, borrowed over $8 billion - and people wonder why rates keep increasing.
The fourth way to tax the future, so making the next Budget look more benign, is to arrange public--private partnerships to build schools, hospitals, roads. Private corporations do the construction, then we pay rent until (perhaps) we one day buy back using that elusive "ATM machine", or borrow more from the financiers.
Sad to think very few young folk are aware of how the parties are competing with each other to lure them into future debt.
The good news is some enlightened economists around the world now advocate central bank credit-funding for the public sector.
HEATHER MARION SMITH, Gisborne
Hubbard's departure
I read with total disbelief a comment from long-time regular cartoon columnist and local boy Jim Hubbard that this was his last column.
I am lead to believe this is not of his own doing, and the paper may be using an alternative cheaper option.
This is typical of what is going in the world today - cast aside something that has been successful for years in favour of a cheaper option.
Monday to Saturday, I keenly turn to his page to see what he has on his mind. It is our right not to agree with everything he says and portrays, but I believe he is usually on the mark with some very well thought out cartoons.
He is a true professional in his field, and a strong supporter of Wanganui.
I have not submitted this earlier because I wanted to observe the replacement's work and am amazed at the cold, lack of character effort.
ROD NEWPORT, Whanganui
EDITOR'S NOTE: It was a sad task to end Jim Hubbard's long stint as cartoonist for the Chronicle. His work has been excellent and I acknowledge the upset among his many fans. This was done to free up some of the Chronicle budget so it could be used to strengthen elements of our news-gathering and production work.
Origin of names
It was good to see that NZME newspapers chose Māori Language Week to introduce macrons. I thought it might be a good time to check the spelling and pronunciation of nearby place names.
Here at Ōhakune (Ō - the place of, and Hakune - the careful ones) I look out my window at a forest-covered headland (rae) that is sharp-pointed (tihi) and is unsurprisingly called Raetihi hill. But the village west of here named after the headland is called "Rarduh-hee" by most people.
And 30km east of Ōhakune is a split in the mountains (wāhi) with a place of entry (o-uru) that has been used by travellers for hundreds of years. That's why there is a Wāhi-o-uru Rugby and Sports Club, but the army camp where the players live is misspelt Waiouru and is called "Why-oo-roo."
Several hundred years ago, travellers just beyond Wāhiouru were caught in a snowstorm and all 140 of them perished. As the snows melted, their frozen tears also melted, and flowed down the stream behind the army camp.
You can still hear the wailing of those unfortunate travellers as the waters flow over the high waterfall. Thus the stream is called Waitangi (waters that are weeping).
This stream enters the Whangaehu River near a railway bridge that needed a local name.
However, there were already a place in Northland and another in the Chathams called Waitangi, so the railwaymen coined the name Tangiwai (sic), which makes about as much sense as "Tomowai," "Nuiwhanga" or "Landauck."
Twenty minutes south of Wāhiouru, we cross the Ōtaihape Stream that had once flowed beside the place of Tai (rhyming with tay) with the back that was mis-shapen (Hape). And thus we have the Otaihape Club, Otaihape Alpine Club and the ruins of the Otaihape Freezing Works. But everybody refers to the nearby township as "Tie-happy."
I'm so glad my home village of Mangamahu is usually pronounced correctly these days, even though the original name of the settlement there was "Kōhanga."
JOHN ARCHER, Ōhakune
Ticked off
In New Zealand it is not compulsory to vote - why not. In Australia, if you do not vote you get fined, and I believe this is the right way to go about it.
Can someone please tell to me why it is not compulsory to vote in The Land Of The Long White Cloud.
GARY STEWART, Foxton Beach
