Healthcare stress
I am horrified to hear about the death of a woman (NZ Herald, June 17) after two visits within a few hours to Middlemore Hospital emergency department – horrified for her and her family and horrified for the staff involved.
The very least family and friends should be able to
expect is that care in the final days and hours is of the highest standard.
For staff, not only does the inability to provide such care impose personal and professional frustration and lack of work satisfaction, but it also has serious implications for their professional practice.
My heart and enormously grateful thanks, plus an inordinate amount of admiration, go out to those who continue to turn up at work knowing the stressors they face each day. I can fully understand why many healthcare staff are resigning, many of whom may well be leaving jobs they actually love. They are also victims.
Good on them for caring for themselves personally and professionally. Unfortunately, those resignations or transfers just contribute to the downward cycle of problematic healthcare provision.
Support, protection, and encouragement of healthcare workers are needed more than ever in the current, complex social and financial world we all must trudge through.
Maria Carbines, Hillsborough.
Ukraine ceasefire
Zelensky needs to heed the call "for Ukrainian fighters to lay down arms" (NZ Herald, June 16) rather than continue pleading for more weapons from Nato/US.
Billions of dollars in barbaric warfare using high-tech weapons are killing us. The outcome is "lose-lose" for Ukraine and Russia.
The greater threat is nuclear war devastation. It starts by "accident" because no one in their right mind would do such an abominable thing. Revenge sets off chain reactions. The living will envy the dead. Blaming Russia is no excuse.
Hence, 40 Western allies meeting in Brussels are wisely advising Zelensky to end the war by negotiation of a peace deal, rather than endless war, risking nuclear holocaust.
Putin's security demands are clear: Neutral Ukraine (not in Nato) with no US military bases or nuclear weapons on Russia's border (a similar demand made by US in the Cuban missile crisis 1962); and recognise Donbas autonomy stipulated in the 2015 Minsk II agreement (in federation).
NZ must cease "lethal aid" and instead be a beacon of sanity for humanity, a nuclear-free peacemaker nation.
Laurie Ross, Glen Eden.
Hard of hearing
I am very concerned with the way we are treating some ex-prisoners such as Mose Vaipapa (NZ Herald June 16).
Firstly, his hearing loss wasn't picked up until very late as a schoolchild. If students are falling behind, why are we not testing them for hearing loss and eyesight?
A close friend who was a remedial reading teacher (now a professor) shared some information with me many years ago that showed that 50 per cent of prisoners had significant hearing loss; mainly due to untreated glue ear. As I have a child with a significant hearing loss, I feel very saddened at this statistic which probably hasn't changed since then-several decades ago.
Secondly, if we are so concerned about the Australian 501 policies in Australia, why are we doing the same thing here in sending ex-prisoners back to the countries of their birth, but very little else? Sending these people back to a country of their origin without family, friends, contacts and often the language is unjust and will probably lead to more crime in those countries.
Let's figure out a way both these issues can be remedied.
Susan Wilson, Surfdale.
Disrepute in practice
A GP has been censured for family violence but allowed to continue practising (NZ Herald, June 14). The doctor was reported to have a criminal history. The courts sentenced him to 12 months supervision and the Medical Council of New Zealand ruled that the doctor's behaviour was likely to bring discredit to the profession.
Despite this, his name was suppressed. That means that his patients will be entirely unaware of his history.
The Health Disciplinary Tribunal is comfortable with that. The tribunal believes that the doctor's reputation is more important than the ability of his patients to be well informed.
It would seem that the Health Disciplinary Tribunal is more likely to bring the profession into disrepute by putting its members' interests ahead of those of its patients.
Nick Hamilton, Remuera.
Hollow victory
I am not sure that, if I were Christopher Luxon or Paul Goodfellow, I would be overly excited about the results of the Tauranga by-election.
Okay, yes, their candidate retained a safe seat that only Winston Peters has been able to take away from National in what 87 years. A sigh of relief all around. Now, for the concerns I would have.
With the economy, health, and law and order being hot topics, I would have expected a bigger voter turnout even for a by-election.
I would have expected a bigger decline in the support for the Labour Party candidate.
I think I would also be concerned that the Herald had the results on its breaking news position online at 7.30am but dropped them by 11.30am the same day. If I can't see that the National Party positions on the three biggest issues facing New Zealand have energised the voters in Tauranga or gained valuable exposure in arguably the biggest news website in the country, I would be worried that my message was not making a major impact at the polling booth where it actually counts.
Dunstan Sheldon, Rototuna.
