Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: My thoughts on the state of the healthcare system

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Andrew Dickens: My thoughts on the state of the healthcare system · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: We ended last week with some hopeful noises from the
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  Speaker 1: health sector. I even said, oh, some good news is
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  Speaker 1: finally Minister Simmy and Brown was praised by academics and
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  Speaker 1: commentators for us increased funding for nurse practitioners, advanced training
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  Speaker 1: for nurses and increased training for doctors who come from overseas.
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  Speaker 1: He also announced an increase in the number of doctors
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  Speaker 1: we train here and that On Friday he announced the
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  Speaker 1: health Plan which sees Lester Levy replaced by a board
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  Speaker 1: and five targets were announced, all focusing on speedier health
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  Speaker 1: care and outcomes and to truth through the waiting list.
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  Speaker 1: The minister started talking about utilizing private facilities. I think
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  Speaker 1: at this point it's important to think about where we
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  Speaker 1: came from and where we are. Labour tried to reduce
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  Speaker 1: the DHBs from over twenty to forty and introduced a
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  Speaker 1: Milordi Health Authority, even though the right wing had been
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  Speaker 1: complaining about the inefficiency of too many boards for years.
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  Speaker 1: When a left wing government does it, it's branded as
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  Speaker 1: a socialist's central government takeover. So we decided to reverse
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  Speaker 1: it and after fifty million dollars was spent pursuing the
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  Speaker 1: four megaboards. We appear to be right back where we started,
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  Speaker 1: except we are not right back where we started. Lester
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  Speaker 1: Levy has been cutting the workforce, and the workforce complains
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  Speaker 1: that the whole sector has been hollowed out. We have
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  Speaker 1: more funding than ever. We're told that all the time,
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  Speaker 1: particularly by the Prime Minister, and yet it did not
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  Speaker 1: keep pace with inflation. And I'm talking about the last
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  Speaker 1: twenty years, not just the last one. And to cope
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  Speaker 1: with the waiting lists that are built up over the decades,
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  Speaker 1: patients are now being directed to the private system. The
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  Speaker 1: upshot is that the public system is slowly withering, very
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  Speaker 1: slowly though, and it's a good time to be a
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  Speaker 1: shareholder and a private health facility because you're getting the overflow.
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  Speaker 1: We seem to be heading towards a two tier health system,
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  Speaker 1: one for those with money and one for those without.
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  Speaker 1: And increasingly, if you don't have health insurance, you're playing
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  Speaker 1: a waiting game about who will see you first. So
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  Speaker 1: Peter or the surgeon for more from Early edition with
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it be from
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  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.