>Re Marwick`s contribution to this discussion.
New Zealand State health services are undergoing a process of
disintegration which has declined to the point where 41% of New Zealanders
have found it necessary to join a private health insurance scheme to protect
their health requirements. As the Public Health System fails the private
industry adapts and now provides 30% of the services. This significant
sector of the health industry succesfully carries out its work without
bureaucracies, without huge management structures, without doctors and
nurses in conflict with managers, without strikes and with high patient
satisfaction. I have not heard of consultants being constantly required
before a decision can be made and the need for foreign input is unknown,
they just get on with the job.
The growth industry in health is in the burgeoning bureaucracy of which Dr
Marwick belongs this is symptomatic of the terminal condition that the State
system is in. There is now a ground swell of New Zealanders that is asking
if there is another way? The mindset that the State is necessary for the
provision of good health service is starting to come to an end, and the
political forces to enable the State to return to its proper limited
function in provision of services, are in the ascendency.
My point is that Dr Marwick should realise that his State system has been
served notice by New Zealanders, it is not performing and instead of further
jeopardising the quality and quantity of the shrinking state system by
looking for the cheap answer,(his last effort based on some obscure Canadian
article), he should be aware that there are other system options that do not
require bureaucracies but will deliver the goods.
Peter Snow
West Otago Medical Center
3 Norfolk St
Tapanui
New Zealand
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