Kate Hawkesby: In a first-world country we should be able to expect a decent health service, not 'adequate'

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Feb 23, 2023 · 3m

As my son marched off for a lung X-ray for a chest infection yesterday, I wondered just how dire the health system was going to get this winter.

As the weather starts to cool, many are picking up change-of-season coughs and colds and when I look at what happened in post-Covid winters overseas, I worry about how bad it might get here too.

Health NZ says it’s ‘bracing’ for a tough winter. But it’s not just sickness that may come our way which is worrying, but our ability to cope with it. There is the state of our hospitals, the workforce of frontline health workers, the shortage of nurses, the…