Letters: Overloaded health system, Upper Harbour cycle-lanes, road toll, and credit card scams

Middlemore Hospital emergency physician Dr John Bonning warned of dangerous overload to the health system. Photo / Supplied, File

Opinion

Hard data
Last week, when Middlemore emergency physician Dr John Bonning presciently warned (NZ Herald, June 17) of dangerous overload, Health Minister Andrew Little said Bonning had been known to make statements without "data". One wonders what sort of "data" is necessary.
Is the tragic death of a woman from a subarachnoid hemorrhage the same week "data"?
The Herald then highlighted Dr Peter Boot's ' experience. Does burnout across the health workforce count as "data"?
Does the paucity of medical graduates leaving university with big loans and then opting not to go into overloaded general practice count?
Does 50 per cent of GPs intending to retire within 10 years count as data?
The impending health reforms will not solve these issues. Neither will resorting (yet again) to blaming it on one's predecessors after being in power for four years.
In medical practice, important decisions are sometimes made on very minimal hard "data". because delays can be critical.
The real tragedy here is that even when Little and health bureaucrats have abundant "data", it is so often discounted or a request is made for more.
Dr John Kyle, Ōrewa.

Averting overload
As I recall, apart from reducing overall deaths, the NZ Covid response (NZ Herald, June 22) was squarely aimed at averting the risk of unmanageable strain on the health "system".
Together with a plan for vaccination, lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates this meant we didn't experience the hospital hallway chaos seen in many other countries from England to India to the US and Fiji. This left our hospitals available for those with other urgent ailments or accidents.
For this, the Prime Minister received the vilest and most vitriolic abuse.
Samantha Cunningham, Henderson.

Barmy bike lanes
In the interest of road safety, AT is installing concrete bollards along both sides of Upper Harbour Drive on Auckland's North Shore to separate cyclists from other road users (NZ Herald, June 23).
Far from achieving a desirable outcome, these concrete kerbstones have achieved the complete opposite.
They squeeze opposing traffic into narrow lanes, and larger vehicles now hug the centrelines. Buses have to be careful pulling into or out from stops to avoid hitting them. They seriously restrict any room for error, and make turning into or out from a driveway an exercise in bravery, especially if traffic is approaching.
They are almost impossible to see at night, and only the line of road cones gives any idea of where they are.
Far from separating cyclists, many cyclists now use the roadway as they cannot ride safely in the now debris-filled bike lanes.
A petition of over 1500 people has failed to motivate AT to remove them or even meet with the locals.
It is only a matter of time before a serious or fatal accident occurs through this unwise and unnecessary waste of ratepayers' funds.
I hope AT is then held to account.
Bryan Jenkins, Greenhithe.

Tolls for thee
As another correspondent stated, Greg Murphy needs to be listened to.
Drivers in New Zealand do not drive to the conditions, do not stop at Stop signs, do not indicate, know how to merge, know how to drive on motorways, run red lights everywhere etc. etc.
Many will meet their God much sooner than they planned, by using a mobile whilst driving and being distracted. I have yet to see a tree jump in front of a car, a road rise up and crash into a car. Roads do not cause crashes, bad and distracted driving does.
Until drivers give driving a vehicle their full attention, lawmakers ramp up fines for using a mobile, find suitable and meaningful consequences for driving alcohol or drug-impaired - nothing will change.
How many more deaths will it take, I wonder, before someone sorts it?
J Wallis, Blockhouse Bay.

Human error
For goodness sake, let's stop blaming the roads for accidents. People drive vehicles; people cause accidents. Some roads may be dangerous but we should always be driving to conditions, including the driver perhaps tired, sleepy or under the influence of drugs or
booze.
The longer we keep blaming the roads and not the driver the more accidents we are going to have.
Let's be honest with ourselves.
Ben Arthur, Massey.

Brought to account
It is with more than a little concern that I read of endless devious schemes perpetrated by professional criminals in defrauding New Zealanders' savings and bank transactions.
The latest scam (NZ Herald June 17), whereby a Kiwibank client cancelled his Kiwibank card, directly by communication with the bank itself, due to suspect transactions, with the bank staffer informed the customer that their fraud department would investigate. Seemed straightforward? Not so, evidently.
Alarmingly, the customer then received phone contact from a fake staffer claiming to be the Kiwibank fraud division, whereby the usual well-rehearsed hard sell of attempting to extract pin numbers, password, etc was attempted - thankfully, due to customer suspicion, with no success.
This event raises extremely serious questions. How can a legitimate account holder's communication with a genuine bank be so swiftly passed along to a criminal enterprise as a fake "follow-up" on a particular client enquiry? It suggests internal security protocols are compromised.
The bank should seriously review its systems, and the Banking Ombudsman should investigate without delay.
Peter Cook, Lynfield.

Priorities abandoned
I was disgusted to read the headline (NZ Herald, June 22), "Worn out GP: system kaput". Our tax money is spent on all the wrong things.
Why do we give money to young people because they say they can't get a job? Really? We bring in thousands of young people from the islands to work in our orchards and vineyards. Why don't we tell the dole bludgers they can keep getting the dole if they work where government agencies tell them where to go?
Northland, Auckland and the East Coast seem to be really bad. Auckland City seems to be run by gangs and police seem to have their hands tied.
My once beautiful city now seems lost.
Susan Lawrence, Meadowbank.

Corridor chaos
Correspondent, G C Marnewick (NZ Herald, June 22) hits the nail right on the head with the description of the total lack of consideration by some for other patients in hospitals.
Years ago, the matron would have put an immediate stop to such behaviour.
A story comes to mind of a family member's experience as a young graduate nurse in Waikato hospital some years ago.
A large, undisciplined bunch of people came to visit a patient. One of the children brought his skateboard along with the idea of skating along the hospital corridors.
The nurses could say nothing. Even back then the "woke" movement was gaining hold. Political correctness has a lot to answer for.
Linda Lang, Henderson.

Non-negotiable
I could not disagree more with Laurie Ross' letter headed "Ukraine ceasefire" (NZ Herald, June 21).
Yes, the war is costly in lives, armaments, and in economic terms.
So was WWII. It was the price of freedom from tyranny, and rules-based world order. Those values are under threat again, from another deranged despot.
As Zelinskyy says, Ukraine is not the first sovereign state in Putin's sights, nor will it be the last if he succeeds. Their fight for self-determination is crucial to containing a revanchist Russia set on destabilising Europe.
How can anyone believe, from the utterances of Russia's leaders regularly threatening nuclear retaliation, that they are anywhere near negotiating an end to this "operation?"
Sally Baughn, Hamilton.

Rough patch
Critics of the Western Australia anti-gang law prohibiting the display of gang insignia say the law doesn't work. National plans to introduce the WA law but their critics say that, even though gang numbers in WA have decreased since the law was introduced, crime hasn't.
Decreasing gang membership, even without a drop in crime seems a positive enough result to me.
It may take a number of years before we see the resulting decrease in crime but meanwhile, we will not have to look at criminals strutting around advertising their gang while frightening women and children.
A similar argument can be made for keeping the three-strikes law which Labour plans to remove. Perhaps we haven't waited long enough for the three-strikes law to show results. Labour's continued refusal to enact tough crime legislation will ensure they don't get another term in government.
John Caldwell, Howick.

Feedback platitudes
I had my wife's car serviced at a Honda garage in late May. Honda asked me to rate my experience via an online survey. I was dissatisfied and gave the lowest possible ranking.
Some weeks later "Lily" from Honda emailed me. Lily was "so sorry that you had not a perfect experience with us".
She understood "how frustrating that must have felt, and it should have never happened". Honda "will be taking note of your feedback to ensure that this incident never happens again". She appreciated me "taking the time to send us this helpful response".
Lily may or may not be a real person but her assurances certainly have no substance, because I had said nothing to explain the low ranking. My "helpful response" was simply: "My comments available on request".
I've long suspected that these customer feedback algorithms just tally the rankings and ignore everything else. Customers are welcome to sound off in the comments section but nobody has time to actually read their ramblings. Lily's email has confirmed my suspicion.
Phil Robinson, Ngunguru.

Short & sweet

On driving
Greg Murphy is right, licenses should only be issued after a training session with a professional driving teacher. Sorry, parents are not good enough, they only perpetuate bad habits. Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.

That you can propel a one-tonne machine down a highway without any formal training at all beggars belief; you can't even drive a fork hoist in your workplace without formal training, and they go slow. J McCormick, Gisborne.

On gangs
Why isn't the tax department targeting gangs? If their wealth is obtained by drugs, etc, it shouldn't be too hard to investigate. It's basically how they got Al Capone. I MacGregor, Greenhithe.

On literacy
Susan Grimsdell's ideas (NZH, June 22) about children learning to read will never get anywhere with the Education Ministry - they rely far too much on common sense. Peter Newfield, Takapuna.

On Little
Health Minister Andrew Little (NZH, June 22) queries "whether someone with a muscle strain, [and] otherwise healthy and fit, could go straight to a physiotherapist". Surely, advising the population on a medical condition is dangerous. Craig Fraser, Mission Bay.

On TV
If I was brain dead, I'd watch game shows with all their ad breaks. Add politicians whose time is well over, and journalists who should stick to their knitting. What have you got? A good reason to go to the streaming services. G Spencer, Patumahoe.

The Premium Debate

$50m supermarket in NZ's wealthiest suburb

This really shows the need for Aldi to come here, i.e. just low prices and no virtue-signalling. Kahu K.

I think the liquor licence is key to this store's profitability. Hector B.

Supermarkets are liquor stores in drag. Mary C.

"Wood-finished hanging section signs are in te reo Māori and te reo Pākehā. Dairy is kai miraka. Meals to go are o rangaranga. Fruit and vegetables are otaota." Cultural tokenism at its most cynical. Philla A.

The locals are probably grateful there wasn't an eight-storey apartment building built there instead. Ray S.

Do they have dog walkers so you don't need to tie up your pooch outside? Tony H.

Golly gee, not polished floors, how ostentatious. I can assure you our local supermarket in an average suburb has both polished concrete floors, and exposed ceilings with services painted black and black shelving. Kevin C.

Hope they have a good chocolate range. Looking forward to it opening. Michael W.