New Zealand does not have a doctor shortage. If you look at the figures, New Zealand has three times as many registered medical practitioners per head of population as it had in 1950, one and a half times as many as it had as recently as 2010.
What it has is a huge increase in demand for medical care, due to the explosive increase in chronic diseases. Something like 80% of GP consultations are for things like type II diabetes, atheromatous cardiovascular disease, allergies and asthma, autoimmune diseases, anxiety and depression, neuro-degenerative diseases, a high proportion of cancers ..., all lifestyle related, preventable and largely treatable by lifestyle interventions.
Preventable, that is, by people taking responsibility for their own health, rather than expecting the government to look after it for them.
Instead of creating another medical school to train marketers for the products of the pharmaceutical industry, which only manage, never cure these chronic diseases, some meaningful changes might be:
- Meaningful co-payments for all medical services, to create an incentive for people to look after themselves.
- Support and funding for Lifestyle Medicine. Has hugely better success with chronic diseases than pharmaceutical medicine, but no State support or recognition. I would recommend a visit to the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine website.
Not often I agree with the minor parties in the coalition, and Darth Hooton has popped the top off the festering wound as usual, I wonder if Steven Joyce will care much about the outcome, he's pocketed his Mil already
Another good expose of macheavellian politics in action. If there is no need for a third medical school and that both Auckland and Otago can fill the necessary quota then pushing ahead with Waikato is no more than a political imperative on the part of the government. But it will be a surprise if ACT throws a spanner in the works on the basis of cost effectiveness.
New Zealand does not have a doctor shortage. If you look at the figures, New Zealand has three times as many registered medical practitioners per head of population as it had in 1950, one and a half times as many as it had as recently as 2010.
What it has is a huge increase in demand for medical care, due to the explosive increase in chronic diseases. Something like 80% of GP consultations are for things like type II diabetes, atheromatous cardiovascular disease, allergies and asthma, autoimmune diseases, anxiety and depression, neuro-degenerative diseases, a high proportion of cancers ..., all lifestyle related, preventable and largely treatable by lifestyle interventions.
Preventable, that is, by people taking responsibility for their own health, rather than expecting the government to look after it for them.
Instead of creating another medical school to train marketers for the products of the pharmaceutical industry, which only manage, never cure these chronic diseases, some meaningful changes might be:
- Meaningful co-payments for all medical services, to create an incentive for people to look after themselves.
- Support and funding for Lifestyle Medicine. Has hugely better success with chronic diseases than pharmaceutical medicine, but no State support or recognition. I would recommend a visit to the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine website.
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Surprise surprise! The list of broken promises just grows daily.
When confronted,it's all just smoke and mirrors. Makes the Artful Dodger look like an amateur.
Not often I agree with the minor parties in the coalition, and Darth Hooton has popped the top off the festering wound as usual, I wonder if Steven Joyce will care much about the outcome, he's pocketed his Mil already
Another good expose of macheavellian politics in action. If there is no need for a third medical school and that both Auckland and Otago can fill the necessary quota then pushing ahead with Waikato is no more than a political imperative on the part of the government. But it will be a surprise if ACT throws a spanner in the works on the basis of cost effectiveness.
I wonder where they expect to find doctors and other medical personnel to staff another med school.
It seems on the campaign trail you can promise anything to get the punters in the waka. And somehow they retain some semblance of integrity.