Health New Zealand (HNZ) – Te Whatu Ora was established on 1 July 2022 under the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act. Replacing the 20 former district health boards (DHBs) its main purpose is to deliver,…

What a headline: ‘Two thirds of overseas-trained medical specialists leave again in less than five years’. It is hard to beat it for dramatic effect especially as it is right on the mark. Aotearoa …

Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Michael Moynahan and Nalini Baruch.

How many times has Minister of Health Simeon Brown missed the target while frequently undertaking his self-promotion of his highly politicised health targets? For the answer see my final comment be…

On 27 October there will be the annual consideration of the United States’ blockade (economic warfare is a better description) at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The next day the A…

With all the extensive media coverage one could not be blamed for attributing the current winter flu outbreak, which started to peak in late August, to the disastrous situation facing our overstret…

Privatisation is continuing to expand in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public hospitals, both in volume and scope. Owing to the Government’s reluctance to use this ‘p’ word, it instead calls it ‘out…

The ‘veil of good intentions’ is an interesting phrase that does not have a specific meaning. Rather it is more metaphorical or symbolic associated with modesty, purity and mystery. Ben Rhodes is a…

If I was to attempt to summarise in a simple soundbite the precarious and deteriorating position of Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system, I may well say that the leadership of Health New Zealand – …

In my various previous posts critical of Israel’s  ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, including through genocide, wherever possible I have avoided using the word ‘Jews’. I deliberately use ‘Isr…

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has been reported to be considering the Government’s response to an horrific United Nations special investigation into Israel’s approach to Palestinian children in G…

‘In a pickle’ is an idiom meaning to be in a difficult, tricky, or troublesome situation; one where it is hard to know what to do or how to escape. It can include everyday things such as losing hou…

Comment: The former Medical Council chair says the minister’s interventions in professional standards are ‘dangerous and dystopian’; Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says they're 'over-rea...

‘A song and a prayer’ is an interesting phrase. It combines a song (words set to music) and a prayer (a petition or address to God). Biblically, by combining emotional expression with spiritual dev…

On 6 June I published a Political Bytes post criticising the mis-named Free Speech Union (FSU) for opposing the exercise of free speech, in the context of fulfilling his duty of care for student we…

There are occasions when a crisis in a particular hospital department provides a microscopic insight into the wider crisis across all of Aotearoa New Zealand’s acute public hospitals. One such occa…

The word locums originates from the Latin term ‘locum tenens’ which means ‘to hold the place of.’ Medical doctors and the clergy are where they are most likely to be found. Aotearoa New Zealand’s p…

The phrase ‘for whom the bell tolls’ has a long history signifying the interconnectedness of humanity and the inevitability of death. Dramatic poet John Donne (1572-1631) originally formu…

On 27 June the Otago Daily Times published a powerful paywalled article by  journalist Matthew Littlewood on the concerns of a leading highly experienced blood cancer laboratory scientist who was r…

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has been reported to be considering the Government’s response to an horrific United Nations special investigation into Israel’s approach to Palestinian children in G…

Dr Dylan Mordaunt is a vocationally registered specialist in medical administration, paediatrics and clinical genetics. In recent months he has become a prolific published writer on various health …

It isn’t often that smaller provincial newspapers break revealing health stories. They struggle with fewer resources to call upon and few opportunities to report. However, health and general journa…

Opportunity Knocks’ is a British television and radio talent show that first began in 1949. It provided a platform to fame for acts such as Spike Milligan and Frankie Vaughan. The popular show whic…

Through necessity bed-blocking is a term that of is increasingly being used by those working in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public hospitals. This is because it captures so precisely what is going so ba…

Opinion: Terry Taylor’s departure is a symptom of a sick medical laboratory funding system, outsourced, ill-equipped and under-funded, argues Ian Powell.

With some origins in ‘Athenian democracy’ free speech is one of the noblest rights which people have struggled for and defended in a multitude of ways for centuries. Put simply it is the right to e…

On 5 March the Government through Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) formally called for ‘Requests for Proposals’ (RFPs) for outsourcing (privatising) ophthalmology services in Aotearoa New Zealand’…

Gleichschaltung is an interesting German word meaning synchronisation or coordination. In the context of German history it was used to describe the process of Nazification in the mid-1930s; that is…

They’re the ones that would suffer…our elderly vulnerable community who are struggling with pensions, who are suddenly going to have to pay huge amounts of money for fuel to drive to Tauranga. GP D…

‘Doing God’s work’ is an interesting expression, Usually it refers to performing acts that are virtuous, altruistic, or, in a religious sense, aligned with divine will. Often it is attributed…

Cuba is facing a humanitarian crisis that has been caused by an unjustified escalation of an unjustified over 60-year old economic war by the most economically and militarily powerful country in th…

I suffer from an addiction – to crime dramas and novels, particularly those involving murder. One of the themes is that as bad as murders of anyone are, it is so much more emotionally stressful for…

On 20 April the Science Media Centre published expert responses to the overwhelming Wellington floods which hit the wider region with such unexpected suddenness, intensity and devastation: Expert r…

Opinion: It was Lester Levy's strong relationship with Christopher Luxon that put him in charge of the country's biggest organisation, Health NZ. But he's now learnt the hard way about over-promising ...

These days, in fact for several years, when a major failing is revealed in Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system due to leadership (political and bureaucratic) decisions, as well as being significan…

A small political party outside Parliament is starting to make political ripples. It is the Opportunity Party; until recently it had ‘The’ at the start of its name and ‘Opportunity’ was pluralised.…

Hospitals, whether public or private, are places overendowed in skill, dedication, compassion and kindness. They are also places that depend on an embedded culture of teamwork both between differen…

Comment: The Govt’s tender to outsource ophthalmology services is startling and significant – the first time a country-wide public hospital clinical service has been privatised

In the last few months of my employment as Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists in 2019, I was asked by many members what I would be doing once I finished work. My …

Once a upon a time there was an ideological attempt in Aotearoa New Zealand to pretend that healthcare was a commodity, not a universal public good, and that therefore the health system should func…

The 1959 Cuban revolution was in direct response to the coup in 1952 launched by Fulgencio Batista which overthrew an emerging Cuban democracy and replacing it with his dictatorship. Young Fidel Ca…

The distinction between the ethics of conviction, on the one hand, and the ethics of responsibility, on the other, is not just interesting in its own right but also highly pertinent to health syste…

When Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, was assassinated in the opening stages of the US-Israeli war against Iran, I did not mourn. Khamenei was not someone who deserved to be …

‘One in seven New Zealand children living in material hardship’ was the dramatic heading of a NZ Herald feature article published on 26 February. The figure was based on the latest Statistics NZ ch…

In 1894 the new reforming Liberal government passed the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. It was recognised as landmark legislation and contributed to Aotearoa New Zealand’s reputation a…

I’m a self-confessed ‘cricket nut’ or, as former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern once said of her finance minister Grant Robertson, a ‘cricket tragic’. For some time I used to brag about playing with…

Comment: A doctor who's joining the new organisation says: 'If people were satisfied with the status quo there wouldn’t be this deluge of people running in the opposite direction...' Ian Powell report...

The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA) is legislation that Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system can’t function safely without. The Act is one of the key external moralities t…

‘Big tech’ in the United States military and the controversy over the Manage My Health (MMH) security breach resulting from a cyberattack on 31 December in Aotearoa New Zealand appear to be so…

This post is much longer than usual. It is also different because it quotes extensively from a courageous Palestinian leader imprisoned for much longer than the legendary Nelson Mandela. Such was t…