Private hospitals could help cut lists

National’s Health spokeswoman, Judith Collins, says Labour’s ideological opposition to private health providers is putting people’s lives at risk.

Since September last year, the waiting list for cardiothoracic surgery at Wellington Hospital has leapt from zero to 47.

“Wakefield private hospital could help ease the backlog but Labour are too PC and too proud to let that happen,” says Ms Collins.

“What matters is that people who need medical attention get it. Where they get it should not be a major concern.

“Labour campaigned on a promise to blitz waiting lists in public hospitals but that was just empty talk.

“National will develop a public-private partnership to ensure that people who need surgery get it,” says Ms Collins.

© Scoop Media

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>>