Roman Travers: Seems like no one really knows how to run the Health Ministry

Yesterday we became aware of yet another giant leap backwards for the mankind of New Zealand, based upon an entirely retrospective move by this coalition Government. 

Our health system is like one giant lab rat: constantly poked and prodded by each and every Minister of Health with every change of government. It’s no wonder so many of our healthcare professionals want out. 

The Minister of Health Shane Reti says he'll shift more health decision-making back to the regions in a monumental change in direction from the previous Government. 

You’ll recall that all 20 of the District Health Boards were scrapped 18 months ago to form Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority, with the aim of ending geographical differences in the care people were receiving. 

But Shane Reti now tells us that the reforms went too far. Do you get the feeling that no one really knows how to run a health ministry in New Zealand? Stand by patients, doctors, and nurses… here we go again. 

Shane Reti says that “There are some parts that need to be owned by the centre, absolutely, but we need to be very careful because what’s happened here is we've lost local accountability. We've lost local decision making and it's all owned by the centre.” 

What he doesn’t tell you is that we also lost all the Barbara’s and Johns across the country, who popped up on DHB’s year after year with their insatiable appetite for free sausage rolls and often absolutely no expertise in anything. 

Any idiot can see that you don’t actually need to have a decision maker on the ground in a town or city in order to determine the best spend on health priorities.   

We have a population and demographic similar to that of a Canadian province where they might also only have one health authority.   

Some would say that reversing at high speed is both entertaining and skilful. Not when it comes to The Ministry of Health, who look to be heading backwards at high speed. 

Minister Reti also says decisions are better in the hands of iwi and hapū. What on earth is he basing that assumption upon? He also plans to give decision making authority to Māori directorates within Health NZ and the Ministry of Health. 

Minister Reti stopped short of saying he would reintroduce DHB’s, adding that the new IT systems, along with key services like radiotherapy machines being examples of what should remain centrally managed.   

Clearly, he needs to pop down the corridors of power and see how many ministries are run out of Wellington without the need to have representation at a local level in every town or city. 

About the only statement that Shane Reti made yesterday that I completely agree with is that ‘our health system is in crisis’. 

Sadly, this is another example of how not to fix a crisis. Retrospective moves like this one will continue to be the catalyst for more of our highly undervalued doctors, nurses and health administrators leaving the service, if not the country.   

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