Absolutely agree. When I heard they had half the number of doctors they needed, my heart sank because how do we keep doctors in the public system when they're that overworked. They must be f'ng angels to work under these conditions (esp Saturday night in ED!)

I had a Saturday morning appointment at Dunedin hospital. The surgeon flew down from Waikato to do a series of them. Essentially private consultants on contract backing up the system. So that is happening too. Communications was so bad I almost walked out after waiting an hour in a deserted building

Literally all they needed to do was to tell me not to expect any staff on that department and it would have been Ok. But everything went late and stress levels were high all round. I logged a complaint because it won't get fixed if no one does that.

Communication is the biggest issue with healthcare, we're already feeling stressed, we need them to be super clear in what's going to happen. Weirdly, private health has been the worst at communication in my recent experience.

Agreed. I had two phonecalls in the week prior. Either one could have told me what to expect. Waiting list took only 3 months as it was a preventative & potentially serious thing. Lab results are slow too because I suspect funding for that is stretched.

Should add that the surgeon and the nurse were both fantastic but both working under a broken system.

Oh that's so weird. I keep dreaming about the day we fully fund public health. Remember when covid first arrived and the news showed countries like Germany and Sweden that had hospitals with empty, fully prepared wards of many beds just in case of a pandemic. Imagine that in Aotearoa!

Public health is being run down so that private contractors can make more $. They don't have the budget to pay an admin person to staff the department at (admin rates - not doctors.) But they do have another budget to fly a surgeon 1500k for a half day of surgeries + their specialist fees.

Definition of insanity!

Back in early '60s they did have 'extra beds' ready for another polio or such like wave of infections. then they tossed matrons and medical supers. out the window and employed useless CEOs etc who wouldnt know how to push a bed. Out with the 'maybe' stuff, reduced supplies/staff, = todays mayhem

Yup and cut taxes in half.