Kerre Woodham: Andrew Little is an absolute disgrace

Last night, the youngest in our household had an ear infection. 
Nothing could ease it, even with the Pamol.
We rang the A&E clinics and were told to prepare for a one and half to two hour wait on a Monday night, which was as expected and then all of a sudden the tears stopped and she was fine, probably because it had burst.  
We were taking it in turns to make the phone calls and you could just hear the exhaustion and frustration and despair and the voices of those who answered and thank heavens they answered the phone. Thank you for doing that.  
I can't even begin to imagine just how frustrating it is to turn up to work and to know that you're in for a long, hard night ahead.  You want to do your best for people; you want to be able to help them but you've been so slammed you simply cannot. 
And then you have Andrew Little, Denier-in-Chief, talking to Mike Hosking asking and saying crisis, what crisis? As he has done so throughout. 
The only thing I can say in his favour is at least he shows up. And at least he's able to spout the party line and never deviate from the script. So I guess he's doing his job. At least he bothers to front up. But seriously, that's about all you can say for him. 
There is no getting around the fact that health is a tough portfolio for any minister, but bloody hell, Andrew Little is making it a whole lot tougher for himself. 
Paramedics say they're at breaking point. They've seen 30,000 more call outs compared to last year. Ongoing vacancies, they need 125 more paramedics right now.
This very minute ambulances being delayed at emergency departments at our hospitals because they are overwhelmed and adding to their pressure. The woman in Medicines Charitable Trust says there will be a catastrophic collapse of the health care workforce. 
They're talking about midwives, they're talking about GPs, they're talking about nurses, they're talking about specialists. 
You might get tired Karen, this is a Karen who texted me yesterday saying why are you so mean and anti-government? Because, they're bloody hopeless.
In this particular instance and in many others. “Your’re so mean and anti-government, Andrew Little is doing his best.” Is he? 
He's been given warning after warning after warning. I can't even imagine how empty his words must sound to an exhausted, frustrated and at-risk health workforce.  
They were operating at 120% capacity in the ED’s in January. They knew what was coming, they were begging for help. 
And Andrew Little says yes it’s coming. How bloody empty are those words when you have to get up every day and try to do your best again, when you've been operating beyond capacity for so many years now?
He's an absolute disgrace. 
To insist that it's just challenging and well, we knew it was going to be tough. And leave them to it, leave them sinking and floundering, when they were begging you for a lifeline and you chose not to give it to them? 
He's a bloody disgrace.

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