#agency

The news in the last 24hrs of the NZ medical council leadership being removed/not reinstated due to being “too ideological” has broken my heart… it’s a clear attack on policies and approaches that are seeking to close the gaps in health outcomes in NZ, and is a part of multiple approaches to discredit equity as a goal. There are hard facts, not mushy feelings driving this “ideology”. A stand out memory of the last few years is a hard working 50ish year old Maori woman who presented late with what otherwise could have been a detectable and treatable cancer, admitted to the ward in late stage, dying within 72hrs of being on shift in her job. Her sister who was by her side, and after death was confirmed, rather than approach the nurses for help, washed and presented her sister after death. Not wanting to bother the health system. There’s more to the story but I don’t want to go further for risk of breaking confidentiality. My point is that so much of this woman and her family’s experience was typical and awful and preventable. And the prevention is in part the relational approach that we as clinicians need to learn and apply before many Maori and minorities will trust the system. I am also so sick of medicine being packaged as a transactional mechanical automaton that should be delivered virtually to save cost. The announcement that Dargaville now has an 8am to 830pm acute medical service is a lie by omission. What’s been announced is actually a private and virtual service. In the past, boots on the ground doctors have saved lives there; delivered prem babies safely, staunched bleeding, done minor things for locals like scripts, for $5 not $100. The nurses that are still there are phenomenal and doing what they can with what’s still around. Surely what is happening to rural NZ is a canary in the mine for the rest of NZ?? Our health system is being gutted and dehumanised. Surely things can turn around before it gets worse? #facetoface #kanohitekanohi