Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Rob Campbell: Former Health NZ Chair on the call for MPs to use the public health system while in office

Transcript

Rob Campbell: Former Health NZ Chair on the call for MPs to use the public health system while in office · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Should MPs have to use the public health system. That
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is a challenge from a group of health workers who
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: are calling out politicians saying they should have to rely
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on the systems that they reside over so they can
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: personally experience the consequences of any decision they make.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: So.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Rob Campbell is the former chair of Tafata Order Health
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: New Zealand, and he comes to the program now good
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: one is here. Rob, thank you once again for getting
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: up early for us.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Marina Andrew, it's not early for some of us.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Is good on you? Is it fair? Is it fair
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to force MPs or to ask MPs to use the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: public health system?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Look at they're not going to do it anymore than
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: they're going to turn down their next pay rise. But
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the call that's been made, I think does highlight that
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: not just MPs, but many people do live in a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: bit of a cocoon from the major problems of our
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: public health system because they've been able to opt out
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to a large extent through the insurance that they hold.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: About of New Zealanders do hold health insurance, so it's
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: no surprise that many MPs do. So it highlights the
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: fact that if you don't have the problem, you probably
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: are not going to effectively deal with the problem. So
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I support the call to that extent. Is it practical?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Don't think so. But it highlights the point that people
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: are living in a cocoon and most people, still a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: slight majority I believe, are fully reliant on the public system.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Well, did the open letter writers not go far enough?
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: You know, because senior bureaucrats in the public service system,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: should they also have been asked to rely solely on
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the public system since they are making decisions? Should the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: opposition also been included in their call?
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think it's certainly the call should have
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: been and I believe it was directed to all MPs,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: And it made me think. I wondered, you know, when
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I was on to FATO or how many of the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: senior staff or other directors held health insurance, because I'd
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: be very disappointed if they did. But when I think
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about it, it's quite possible they did. And there's no
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: question that your own circumstance as AULTI your viewers things.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: So I think that that point is very valid and
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: it's a problem for the public health, for the public
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: health system absolutely.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: In fact, that was my next question into people at health.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: New Zealand use private healthcare. You can't really answer it,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure they did.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Look, look, here's the thing. The private system works in
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: conjunction with the public system, and together they confront the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: problems that are facing New Zealanders in terms of their
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: health care. The private care system is beneficial. Should it
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: be demonized like this?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: There's no point in demonizing it. I fully understand I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: don't have health insurance, I should say, but I fully
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: understand why many people do, and for a long time
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: a large part of our health service. In fact, even
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: right from the GP, we have a privatized health service system.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: We don't have a fully public system. We may think
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: we want one, but we don't have it, and so
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the private system is an important part of it. But
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I think one of the issues we've got in New
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Zealand at the moment is that it doesn't help to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: demonize the public system. The public system does a huge
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: number of good things, which the health workers have made
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: this call fully understand, and many people get fantastic service
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: from the public system. So it's public system actually needs
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: some love rather than punishment. And I think if I
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: was the boss of a health insurance company. Every time
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to far to Wora got attacked or the public health
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: system got attacked, I think that's good. That's another few
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: people coming in the front door of my business. So
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: we do have to be careful about that. We don't
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: want to demonize either side of it. But the truth is,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: if you're making big decisions for something like a public
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: health system and you yourself are insulated from it, it
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: will impact your decision making. There's no way it doesn't.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: You had to work with these people, You had to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: work with these senior ministers. Are they, as these open
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: meta writers say, out of touch with just how dire
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the situation is in the health system is? Are they
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: in fact insulated perform it or did they understand?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, there's no question that they're insulated from it
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: by the very nature of their job, the way they
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: do their job, what they've paid, what they're surrounded by,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the advice that they've got in their ears all the time.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: There's no question that they're isolated. Then it is a
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: problem for our representative democracy. When people are elected. On
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the day they're elected, they probably do represent some part
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: of the electorate, but pretty quickly once they get into
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: that hot ass atmosphere down there in Wellington. They do
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: lose touch, there's no question of it.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Rob, I thank you for your time. There's Rob Campbell,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the former Health New Zealand chair.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:35
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