Looking after hospital doctors, dentists

Pauline E Tangiora

Opinion

It doesn’t seem right that we in Aotearoa do not give much respect to the senior doctors and dentists in our hospitals.

Within our United Nations agreement there are three standing issues of human rights that we are signatories to, one of which is that the public is entitled to a good health system.

One has seen over the past few decades the gross deterioration of our health system in Aotearoa. Now our senior doctors and dentists working in hospitals have voted to strike three times in September over their deadlocked pay negotiations.

To see such threats shows a lack of respect by the health system. This is not about pay equity at all — why should they be calling the attention of the public to failures of the system? I would put this down to the Ministry of Health — the people who sit in their offices and write the policies.

These medical people who give willingly of their services to the public in hospitals should not have to go cap in hand with their union seeking a fair and honest deal.

One is very much aware that, throughout the country, many of these professional people have hung in far beyond the retirement age.

We, the public of Aotearoa, should collectively  voice our disgust at the way these medical specialists in the hospitals are being treated.

It is no wonder that so many younger graduates move overseas. They are given far more respect than what is provided in Aotearoa New Zealand.

At the end of the day, these people hold our lives in their hands. Why are they being treated in this way at the moment?

What has happened to the changes that were to be made on July 1 last year? It seems that those who get the big wages at the ministry in Wellington announced these changes before they were ready.

For example, if a doctor wants to send their patient outside their current hospital area because there is no specialist in their area to attend to them, they are finding so much obstruction to this being done.

We were told the new system would be much easier for patients and the hospitals to implement. So where is the implementation?

I would like to point out that Cuba has been penalised as a socialist country, but it has one of the best health systems in the world. Maybe we should send some managers from the ministry over there to see how they are doing it.

As an example, when the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and explosions happened, they were the first country to send over dozens of doctors to help the local people.

Election year is not far off — less than 50 days in fact. When we go to the polls, maybe we should be questioning the candidates over what government is going to do to upgrade hospital care for the people of New Zealand.

The recent “major incident” declared by St John in Waikato when the hospital’s emergency department was overloaded does not look very good for the rest of us in Aotearoa.

Let’s talk and be positive and actually make things happen for the benefit of ordinary New Zealanders. Let them not make the people the political football for the politicians.