Tagged: healthcare

Featured image: Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care

Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • May 18, 2022 •

A/Prof Ben Gray* Gray B. Government funding of interpreters in Primary Care is needed to ensure quality care. Public Health Expert Blog.17 May 2022. The pandemic has highlighted many problems in the NZ health system. This blog will address the question of availability of interpreters for people with limited English proficiency (LEP). This is now funded within hospitals. It is … Read More

Featured image: Critically understaffed and with Omicron looming, why isn’t NZ employing more of its foreign-trained doctors?

Critically understaffed and with Omicron looming, why isn’t NZ employing more of its foreign-trained doctors? - COVID-19

Guest Author • Feb 08, 2022 •

Johanna Thomas-Maude, Massey University and Sharon McLennan, Massey University New Zealand’s critical shortage of specialist nurses made headlines again this week, but it’s not the country’s only pressing medical need. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) has estimated almost 3,000 more GPs and specialist doctors, and 12,000 more nurses, are needed to match Australia’s per-capita staffing … Read More

Featured image: Selling a buffalo for a brain scan: India’s COVID-19 crisis reveals deep fractures in its health system

Selling a buffalo for a brain scan: India’s COVID-19 crisis reveals deep fractures in its health system - News

Guest Author • May 06, 2021 •

Kaaren Mathias, University of Canterbury As India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, the percentage of the population testing positive for the virus has grown from 4.2% to 18.4% in the past 30 days. With more than 300,000 new cases reported each day, hospitals and crematoria face collapse. Global media have been awash with heartbreaking images, statistics and stories showing the … Read More

Featured image: How crowdfunding campaigners market illness to capture the attention of potential donors

How crowdfunding campaigners market illness to capture the attention of potential donors - Hot off the press

Guest Author • Apr 28, 2021 •

Tom Baker, University of Auckland; Ann E. Bartos, University of Auckland; Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns, University of Auckland; Octavia Calder-Dawe, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Susan E Wardell Liam’s* crowdfunding campaign page is direct: his “sole purpose is to survive”. Before his diagnosis with inoperable brain cancer, Liam was a “healthy, fitness and sports minded 44-year-old, [who gave] … Read More

Featured image: Pandemic priorities

Pandemic priorities - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Apr 28, 2021 •

Prior to Covid, successive governments’ approaches to public health meant that we had central government ready and able to command District Health Boards to stop the sale of soda at hospital cafeterias, but unable to tell whether hospital staff were vaccinated during a measles outbreak caused by failure to make sure everyone was getting their measles shots. I worry that … Read More

Featured image: No one is mourning the end of district health boards, but rebuilding trust in the system won’t be easy

No one is mourning the end of district health boards, but rebuilding trust in the system won’t be easy - News

Guest Author • Apr 27, 2021 •

Tim Tenbensel, University of Auckland This week’s announcement that all district health boards (DHBs) would be abolished and replaced with a centralised health agency took a lot of people by surprise. Most key health sector interest groups appear to support the proposed agency, provisionally known as Health NZ. But the Labour government has created some very high expectations, … Read More

Featured image: With closer ties to GPs, NZ’s new central health agency could revolutionise treatment of major diseases

With closer ties to GPs, NZ’s new central health agency could revolutionise treatment of major diseases - News

Guest Author • Apr 26, 2021 •

Verna Smith, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington It is rare to get excited about institutional reform, but the government’s announcement of wholesale changes to the health system has the potential to be transformative. The restructure comes in response to last year’s Health and Disability System review. Among other changes, it will create a centralised organisation, … Read More

Featured image: New authority could transform Māori health, but only if it’s a leader, not a partner

New authority could transform Māori health, but only if it’s a leader, not a partner - News

Guest Author • Apr 22, 2021 •

Dominic O’Sullivan, Charles Sturt University and Heather Came, Auckland University of Technology As part of a major overhaul of the health system, health minister Andrew Little yesterday announced a new Māori health authority. The authority will be able to commission primary health services and make joint decisions with a newly created centralised health agency. It’s a simple idea, … Read More

Featured image: How New Zealand’s healthcare system is failing people with osteoarthritis

How New Zealand’s healthcare system is failing people with osteoarthritis - Guest Work

Guest Author • Apr 03, 2021 •

J. Haxby Abbott and Ross Wilson Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting almost 650 million people over the age of 40 worldwide. In New Zealand, around one in eight adults have osteoarthritis, but it is a rapidly worsening problem. An ageing population and increasing rates of obesity and joint injury are contributing to the … Read More

Featured image: Don’t ignore the ‘omics

Don’t ignore the ‘omics - Genomics Aotearoa

Genomics Aotearoa • Jul 23, 2019 •

Professor Cristin Print ‘Omics technologies are an advance that few health practitioners can ignore. The last five years has seen an expanding range of technological advances. Genomics and related ‘omic technologies are rapidly penetrating into the mainstream of primary and secondary care and transforming our knowledge of disease through research. Some of these new technologies are destined to be used … Read More