Wayne Naylor: Hospice NZ CEO on the reviews being collected on dying in Aotearoa

New Zealanders who are dying, or caring for someone who's on their deathbed, have been leaving reviews rating their experience with death in Aotearoa. 

In a new initiative led by Hospice NZ, Dying Reviews invites people who've had experience with death to reflect how they were treated by the everyday systems that surround us.

New Zealand's national score is 3.28 out of 5, and Government agencies received the lowest ratings of any sector (2.5), while restaurants and events were the top scorers (4.55).

Hospice NZ CEO Wayne Naylor unpacked the reviews - and all the variables impacting the scores.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now though, turns out New Zealand is a three
out of five star place to die. This is data
from Hospice New Zealand. They got dying people in their
cares to give reviews on the services that they're interacted with.
The best was restaurants at four and a half out
of five stars, and the worst government agencies at two
two and a half out of five stars. Wayne Naylor
is the CEO of Hospice New Zealand with US high Wayne,

(00:21):
Hi here, how are you? I'm well? Thank you? Why
did restaurants school so highly.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well? Based on the reviews, the people work in hospitality
would more often than not go out of their way
to be helpful, friendly and accommodating for people. I think
that's generally what we expect from hospitality and that's certainly
what came through in their reviews.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
And then why did government department school so badly.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well? Again, based on the reviews, it's that it was impersonal,
It was bureaucratic. People had to go in person to
sign documents, or they were faced with a digital war
that stopped them from doing things, and it was just
and when they're tired, unwell or grieving, the last thing
you need is just more complication when you're trying to
sort things out and.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Go in person to sign what kind of documents.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Right, there's a good example of someone having to literally
be taken out of their death beard, put into a car,
taken to get a signature. Then you had to get
taken to a bank because the only way to do
it was to have an in person on paper signature.
And there's another story at the other end of the
scale where the bank went to the person's house and
did the work with them. Then that was required so

(01:32):
that everyone was in a place of comfort and it
was a great experience. So you know, and the review
shows many, if not all, of these organizations business are reviewed,
could be at either end of the scale.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
And it was it two different banks.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
There's I mean people reported across a range of banks,
so we haven't got just one bank and the same
bank could have a five star rating and a one
star ration. And it really came down to the person
who was in front of the other unwell person, how
they interacted.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Ok, what do we take away from this? What do
we do about it?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
So it's a great opportunity for a whole range of
businesses organizations agencies to look at their reviews, find out
what great looks like when you're dealing with someone who's
dying and someone who's grieving or someone who's so busy
caring that it's everything's a trial, and learn from what's
not gone well, and also learn from the things that

(02:29):
people have said we're great, so that we can change
the experience of people who are dying in New Zealand
and the people caring for them to make it so
much better as society can do way better than what
the reviews show.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Wayne, it's good to talk to you. I really appreciate it,
Wayne Naylor, CEO of Hospice New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
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