Kerre Woodham: There are no new headlines in health

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a health system in possession of physically and mentally unwell people must be in want of billions (with apologies to Jane Austen). It is also a truth universally acknowledged that a health system can never have enough of those billions. Look at the $1.96 billion Labour invested into the mental health budget back in 2019. We now know some years later where exactly that money has gone, but whether it was a good investment or not, too soon to tell. It certainly hasn't fixed mental health or made it any easier for families to access mental health care for troubled teens and the like – and that was $1.96 billion chucked at the problem.  

And these headlines: “New Zealand needs 450 more ICU nurses”. When was that? That headline was from March 2023, but it could have been any year. Tell me that New Zealand doesn't need more nurses than any particular sphere of nursing. In November 2022: “GPs need a funding increase of 231% to be viable”. Again, that was three years ago. That was the GPs calling for the Labour Government please, we needed a 231% increase in our funding. 5000 nurses from New Zealand —or about 8% of the country's entire force— have registered to come and work in Australia. That was in April 2023. And on and on it goes.  

There is nothing new in health, no new headlines. No matter what government is in, they need more money, they need more staff, they need more frontline staff, they need more efficiency in the way things are done. And it's not just New Zealand, it is a worldwide problem. The health sector is a bottomless pit wanting more and more and more. I do remember a senior doctor many years ago, ringing me at nights on his way home from work and he said we in fact do have enough money, it's just where it gets spent. And I would probably believe that - you have to spend smarter, not just more.  

So the government has announced it will help bring 100 overseas trained doctors into the primary care workforce. Previously, they've only been able to do their training at hospitals and now if you want to be a GP, the GPs will be able to train you and that will count, and that is a very, very good move. There's also a $285 million performance-based boost in funding for GPs that's been announced. The new Health Minister, Simeon Brown, also said the government would begin work on a new 24/7 digital healthcare service that would allow Kiwis to better access online video consultations.  

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners President Samantha Murton told Mike Hosking that utilising more telehealth makes sense: 

“You cannot do everything online, but you can do a lot online and if I have patients, I talk to every week, I say to them, or every day, you know, let's do this consultation online because we’re just following up on results or they’ve got symptoms that are really easy to cover. But are you going to have a pharmacy open at 11 o’clock at night? Probably not.”  

Well, no, but you can pick it up tomorrow because you've got your prescription and off you go. It makes sense, doesn't it? There are already digital healthcare providers that are 24/7, that fit around when their patients are available not when the doctors are available. But so much of our health system wouldn't be needed if we all showed good sense. You know, if we were fit, and we were healthy, and we took care of ourselves, and were aware of any kind of triggers for mental health, and that sort of thing. If more common sense was employed then we wouldn't need the services of doctors. Green prescriptions are still there, which is great.  

It's all part of a continuum, so if GPs see more people, they don't present at ED, and the hospitals don't get clogged, and then you don’t need to concentrate on the aftercare as well, and then we have a system that works. Or will we ever? You look at any health system anywhere in the world: the problem is not the health system, the problem is sick people. That's what the problem is. And people who want the health system to fix them rather than take any kind of responsibility. There are people who get terrible diseases, and they want to be cured because to a certain extent the health system is a victim of its own good marketing - get sick, we can fix you.  

Where do we even begin? So much of it comes back to responsibility, doesn't it? Own individual responsibility for your own health. You can't spend a lifetime abusing your body and then going to a doctor or a health system and saying fix me. One 15-minute appointment after an adult lifetime of abuse, fix me. I've suddenly decided I want to live. Well. Well, you know it's on you. There are things beyond our control, accidents happen. Horrible, pernicious diseases appear out of nowhere and that's what the health system should be for. Not for people who could prevent a lot of what is putting them into hospital pr what a lot of people are presenting to the GP with. I'd love to know from GPs how many people who turn up could actually fix themselves or could have fixed themselves before they presented. 

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