Kerre Woodham: Should we be doing more to prevent people needing hospital care, rather than bemoaning the system?

First up health, because we really can't ignore it.

What will come as no surprise to many, Te Whatu Ora,  also known as the health department, has shown that the performance of the nation's hospitals has worsened over the past year in almost every department. 

ED waiting times are bad; more than 6000 patients who have been pre-approved for surgery have been left languishing, many in pain for more than a year. People are having to fund their own surgeries after being let down by the public health system.

You might have seen the story over the weekend the hospital system is also having to deal with a young man with special needs because there is nowhere else to put him. He's not unwell. He's not sick. He's not needing medical attention.

But the hospital and the nurses, who are not specially trained to look after this young man with his neurodiverse needs, is taking up a hospital bed because there is nowhere else to put him.

Nine months into this brand-new vision for the nation's health services, the head of Te Whatu Ora, Margie Apa, says the system is under strain. 

So what is the answer? Is it training more GP's, training more surgeons, training more doctors? Is it importing them? Is it encouraging Kiwis to take responsibility, (shocking, shocking thought) for their own health? Rewarding them for doing so? 

Many people who end up in hospital end up there because of chronic health conditions that could be alleviated with a change of lifestyle. 

Do we reward New Zealanders who show up for checkups? The number of people I have spoken to who are frustrated beyond belief because there are clinics that people can attend, that they are told to attend so that their health conditions don't get worse. They don't turn up. Vans are put on for them, taxis are provided, but they don't show up. 

So a little bit of carrot, a little bit of stick to encourage New Zealanders to be more responsible for their own health, perhaps. 

Instead of just bemoaning the fact that, you know, we've got so many people in hospital and there are so many people who require surgeries, do we go back, right back to the very beginning and say, OK, well, why are people in hospital in the first place?

Should we be doing more to prevent people needing hospital care anyway?  

Do we need to look at things a little bit differently? I'd love to hear from you on that. Perhaps reimagining how we do health in this country because what we have right now is not working and it's not working for anybody. 

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