Urgent debate needed on public health prioritisation

Health Minister Annette King's statement that a debate over the prioritisation of health care in the public sector would not be helpful shows a gross lack of knowledge about her portfolio, says National's Health spokeswoman Dr Lynda Scott.

Dr Scott's call for such a debate comes in response to a Ministry of Health-funded report showing that doctors are encouraging patients to lie and exaggerate symptoms in order to receive timely treatment.

"District Health Boards across New Zealand are rationing health care, and every DHB is doing it differently. In a country this size, we need to be consistent," says Dr Scott.

"The public has not been given the chance to debate what should and should not be given priority treatment. It's time that debate was held.

"The public health service offers excellent acute care and surgery but that often means that booked elective surgery gets delayed or cancelled. The only way to ensure certainty in health is to utilise our private hospitals," says Dr Scott.

"It is an indictment on Labour's health reforms that every DHB is failing to meet six-month deadlines for specialist assessments. The Ministry of Health's own statistics show that less orthopaedic and ophthalmologic procedures have been carried out in the last year than in 1999, when National was last in Government.

"I would like to see more New Zealanders with private health insurance. "The Government's public-only policy denies patients crucial health care and puts unnecessary pressure on our public hospitals," says Dr Scott.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>