Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sarah Dalton: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director on Simeon Brown's calls for them to stop advocating

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Sarah Dalton: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director on Simeon Brown's calls for them to stop advocating · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Doctors are being told they need permission before commenting on
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  Speaker 1: regional issues that could impact public health. Health Minister Simeon
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Brown says he's fed up with the doctors giving advice
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  Speaker 1: on issues like fast food. Executive director of the Association
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  Speaker 1: of Salary Medical Specialist Sarah Dalton is with me now,
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  Speaker 1: good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Sarah, Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Is Simon Brown overstepping the mark here?
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  Speaker 2: I think he is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's been the reaction by doctors.
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  Speaker 2: There's a real sense of unease, I think not just
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  Speaker 2: within the National Public Health Service, but more widely that
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  Speaker 2: there's an attempt to I guess silence doctors prevent them
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  Speaker 2: from properly speaking up, both for issues of public health
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  Speaker 2: and also patient safety. As far as public health goes,
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  Speaker 2: it's a really key component of public health. Physicians and
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  Speaker 2: particularly medical offices of health jobs to speak to issues
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  Speaker 2: of broader public well being and them is the suggesting
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  Speaker 2: that they confine themselves to immunizations is very narrow view
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  Speaker 2: and is wrong. You know, there are lots of legislative
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  Speaker 2: powers that medical offices of health have. I think if
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  Speaker 2: the Minister is concerned about those who needs to work
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  Speaker 2: through the proper parliamentary processes.
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  Speaker 1: He's saying, any advice needs to be signed off at
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  Speaker 1: a national level. Is this even practical?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it flies in the face of certainly the direction
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  Speaker 2: that Minister Reti was taking before him, of trying to
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  Speaker 2: devolve back to local decision making across de fut To order.
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  Speaker 2: That was very much an argument that was being put
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  Speaker 2: and that, you know, the idea that taking a national
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  Speaker 2: approach under to fut To Order was the wrong way
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  Speaker 2: to go. So for regions have been established and under
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  Speaker 2: that the districts remain. Certainly the PI order legislation talks
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  Speaker 2: about localities and empowering people for local decision making that
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  Speaker 2: suited the local context. So it would be really nice
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  Speaker 2: to know consistently what this government actually wants, what they're
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  Speaker 2: going to support. And I think local people understand that
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  Speaker 2: what is right for in Chicago may not be right
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  Speaker 2: for West Coast or the card Cutter. So I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we need to we need to be sensible here,
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  Speaker 2: but we also need to respect the significant training and
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  Speaker 2: also responsibilities that a number of our senior doctors hold
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  Speaker 2: under legislation that can get on with their work.
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  Speaker 1: Because do doctors actually have a duty to advise on
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  Speaker 1: things like fast food.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they do. So that's a core component. You know,
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  Speaker 2: medical public health is in some respect about the social
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  Speaker 2: and commercial determinants of health. You know, their patients, if
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  Speaker 2: you like, is the whole populations of whole communities as
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  Speaker 2: wide as the whole of New Zealand. That's why you know,
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  Speaker 2: immunizations is an easy example to understand that if enough
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  Speaker 2: people get immunized, that's a health prevention activity. People are
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  Speaker 2: less liked to be infected if in setious disease arrives, right,
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  Speaker 2: and so it helps to prevent against that. People don't
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  Speaker 2: always see as clearly the wider social harms that can
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  Speaker 2: be caused, for example, about access to you know, alcohol, tobacco,
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  Speaker 2: fast food. They absolutely have an impact on people's health
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  Speaker 2: and well being. And if where you live you have
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  Speaker 2: ready access to those things and you can't afford to
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  Speaker 2: buy healthier food, that is also going to have an
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  Speaker 2: impact at a community level on people's health and well being.
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  Speaker 2: So doctors do have an obligation, based on evidence what
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  Speaker 2: we know, to talk about those things.
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  Speaker 1: If doctors aren't giving the advice, who do we turn to.
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  Speaker 2: That's very good question, isn't it. I don't know, it's
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  Speaker 2: a little early in the days. I mean to give
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  Speaker 2: you a proper, a proper answer on that, but I
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  Speaker 2: think you know. The point is, we have a trained
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  Speaker 2: and qualified cohort of professionals who can give us that information.
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  Speaker 2: Why would we not use it?
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  Speaker 1: So is there a plan to avoid the overreach here?
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  Speaker 2: Sarah, Well, we will keep supporting our members to speak
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  Speaker 2: out about what the evidence says and about what is
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  Speaker 2: the right thing to do. We certainly will continue to
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  Speaker 2: support them to speak out for patient safety because I
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  Speaker 2: think that is absolutely critical and that is what the
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  Speaker 2: people of New Zealand want.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah Dalton, thank you for joining me this morning. Appreciate
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  Speaker 1: that was the executive director of the Association of Salaried
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  Speaker 1: Medical Specialists. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
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  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
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  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.