New Zealand Doctor podcasts

 System Fix host Barbara Fountain talks about a PHO in the making with two Marks – Mark Liddle, chief executive of the General Practice Owners Association, and Mark Peterson, specialist GP from Taradale and a member of the interim board of 'thePHO'; he's also the GenPro-driven PHO's establishment medical director and clinical governance lead. With a potential 800,000-plus enrolled patients, thePHO will shake up the PHO sec...

System Fix host Barbara Fountain joins New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa colleague senior journalist Martin Johnston for what started out as a rundown of events in health reform since health minister Simeon Brown took the reins in January, but which turned into a challenge to stay ahead of new announcements. After months of limited action in the sector, the start of 2025 has turned into a series of sprints. The initial reco...

Welcome to 2025. System Fix host Barbara Fountain joins regular panellists Gabrielle Baker and Tim Tenbensel as the health sector year starts with the surprise, or maybe not surprise, arrival of a new health minister - Simeon Brown. The team talk about what the change means for the reforms of the New Zealand health sector currently awash with job and spending cuts. We also canvas the future of funding and how a new ministe...

After a sojourn, the System Fix panel is back with an update of the last five months in health reform - that is the time BEFORE health minister Shane Reti turned Te Whatu Ora and the reforms on their head by ditching the board and installing a commissioner. The Government Policy Statement on Health, a reality check on health targets, the puzzling road ahead for iwi Māori partnership boards and the move towards social inves...

How well do you remember those early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when New Zealand watched in apprehension as overseas the virus spread uncontrolled in Italy, health workers died on the job, and morgues ran out of room for the bodies of the dead. Specialist GP and writer Lucy O’Hagan remembers. In Waiting for COVID, Dr O’Hagan takes a personal journey back through her writings and observations of “COVID times”, reflecting...

Hand–arm vibration syndrome develops in stages and prevention is critical; when function deteriorates, it is necessary to consider it lost, unless a lot of hard work is put into rehabilitation, professor in occupational and environmental medicine David McBride explains. He reminds listeners of the usual occupational health algorithm: identify the hazard, assess the exposure, control the hazard, monitor the hazard and the i...

It's a cracker episode with panellists and health policy experts Gabrielle Baker and Tim Tenbensel joining me, Barbara Fountain, to catch up on the latest in health reforms. The panel convened in the middle of a week that started with the Parliamentary debate on the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora. You’ll hear about:  The impact of the closure of Te Aka Whai Ora on Māori patients and providers and the wider reforms; Th...

The year 2023 is quickly becoming a distant memory as the great Kiwi summer does an excellent job of wiping the neural slate clean. System Fix host Barbara Fountain takes the opportunity of an unexpected convalescence, to refresh her memory by looking back at her editorials in 2023. The heart of New Zealand Doctor Rata Aoteraroa is in primary care and you will hear that theme loud and strong in this episode of System Fix. ...

Abbe Anderson is Te Whatu Ora national director commissioning. The buck stops with her for any items relating to funding and planning in primary care and community health. System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain recently caught up with Abbe via Zoom. They chatted about her passion to see a reform built on knowing what people want of their health system, progress with sector restructurin...

Five weeks after he was sacked as chair of the board of Te Whatu Ora, Rob Campbell reflected on what was going so wrong with the health reforms and what might be done to make it right. He was speaking to a meeting of the Fabian Society in Wellington. System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain says that speech and Mr Campbell’s subsequent comments deserve more air time and replays it as par...

System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain is joined by regular panelists independent health policy consultant Gabrielle Baker (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kuri) and Auckland University health policy professor Tim Tenbensel for the first episode of 2023. You name it, we cover it - a new health minister, the end of the transition unit, progress with planned care, commissioning, iwi Māori partnership boa...

System Fix host and New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa editor Barbara Fountain provides a quick rundown of events around the 1 July launch of New Zealand's new central health entities - Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand and Te Aka Whai Ora - Māori Health Authority, and then makes way for senior journalist Martin Johnston's interview with Te Whatu Ora board chair Rob Campbell, who admits he was quite shocked when he realised ...