Letters: Too many health system bosses; road cone efficiencies; Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump

'Politicians are tinkering with a health system that is irreparably broken.'

Too many cooks in health system

I have worked in the public health field for the past 54 years, from the UK to NZ and in between. I have observed the changes in health delivery at the coalface.

I agree with our Prime Minister that it is high time to change the health delivery framework due to the fact that truckloads of taxpayers’ cash is wasted by too many cooks at the top and they are spoiling the broth. The top management is utterly out of touch with what’s happening on the floor and the needs of the staff are not taken into account.

There are too many ideologues who seem to think that taxpayers’ cash is unlimited. I have seen with my own eyes how at the end of a financial year any cash left must be spent on unnecessary things just to show there is no cash left, plus they have to ask for more for the coming year. The top brass has also extended services in areas that have nothing to do with patient care on the floor - race and cultural aspects come to my mind.

As long as one is treated with respect during treatment in a hospital, that is all that’s required to achieve good outcomes. It is also high time healthcare delivery is functional and not fancy so that more patients are treated instead of waiting for months and months.

Hospital employees are gagged and only management-appointed staff can communicate with media. Now that I am not part of it I can say without fear the issues public healthcare have in New Zealand.

All I can say is, it will be nice if staff are free to raise issues in public or via independent media to fix Health NZ.

Ashley Mall, Mt. Albert.

Political tinkering

Too much bureaucracy or not enough? Too much or too little centralisation? Twenty DHBs or one big one?

Neither those on the centre-left of government nor the current coalition seem to have any clue how to squeeze timely, equitable, quality care out of our struggling healthcare system, regardless of how much money is thrown at it. Dr Shane Reti, it will not ultimately matter if the board of Te Whatu Ora is replaced by a single commissioner.

The real problem is that politicians are tinkering with a system that is irreparably broken and needs a bold, creative overhaul. There are alternatives. Unfortunately, we lack the political will and imagination to envision better models of healthcare delivery and prefer instead to point accusatory fingers at whichever government was merely the last to fail.

Dr Art Nahill, Meadowbank.

Cone efficiency

Correspondent Alan Walker complains about the inconvenience of road cones, like many other motorists (NZ Herald, July 23).

His solution is to “remove red tape”, which presumably means fewer safety measures when holes are dug in the road. Wayne Brown is similarly angry.

I’d like to suggest a better solution. Use council workers to do these jobs, instead of private contractors, whose main aim is not efficiency but to make every job as big and profitable as they can.

Public workers cut out the middlemen of private profit takers. That’s why we used to have a Ministry of Works. Red tape isn’t the problem, it’s big business feeding at the trough.

Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.

Trumped again

Sorry Kamala Harris - sexist, racist US America will not elect a woman for President – especially a black woman. Yours is an adolescent macho culture, and Donald Trump is now assured of victory in November.

That so many US Republican women will vote for Trump, in spite of his “Grab them by the p****“ boast, (as captured on tape), emphasises their over-riding “stand by your man” attitude, and willing acceptance of their secondary-level place in US society.

Democrats will regret their withdrawing of support for Joe Biden, disregarding as they have, all he has achieved while in office – low unemployment, notable post-pandemic recovery programmes (both economic and social), positive overall economic gains, and introducing climate change initiatives that will not be upheld or repeated under a Trump administration.

Instead, Democrats could have mounted an aggressive, strategically-based campaign, incorporating all these facts from his presidential record, aimed at switching swing voters their way.

Hillary Clinton proved my point when she lost to Trump in 2016. She got more votes than he did in the general election, but lost in the totally undemocratic US “second bite” Electoral College, where every US state gets equal votes, regardless of each state’s population. This means small, ultra-conservative, more backwardly-entrenched states have a disproportionate “second say” as to who will finally be President.

This is where Clinton was defeated. So get ready world – to be Trumped again.

Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.