Bye, Bye Health !
We've already spent $1bn on thin air (Kiwirail) and $35bn on tax cuts so no to your hospitals and investments
Bye, Bye hospital plans.
Today Rachel Thomas reported - $3.2 billion is sleighted to come out of “hospital and mental health infrastructure projects”, and it seems the first formal casualty is Dunedin hospital, South Island.
ODT reports former Labour Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson saying:
“At the end of the day, the question is whether or not the southern region will have an adequate clinical facility or will not.
‘‘And if the aim is to build half a hospital then the public response to that will be one of outrage.’’
Dunedin - who have fought hard and admirably - even creating a song below - is not the first hospital casualty.
Whangarei hospital in the North is another -
After criticising Labour for putting aside $759 million towards Whangarei hospital, and slamming Labour for not accelerating the build, the first thing Shane Reti did as Health Minister last year was to defer the Whangarei build and re-allocate the $759 million. Doctors’ warnings fell on deaf ears.
Nelson hospital is another. In May, it was revealed the government was looking at how to reduce costs. And in August, Shane Reti announced it would go ahead but with a smaller scale build, which posed questions about patient care and scalability.
But - let’s be clear - these cuts shouldn’t be a surprise.
They were all well previewed in Lester’s multiple “Pray for Me” talks where he signalled hard decisions would have to be made to the Health budget.
And big cuts in health (infrastructure, people, systems, investment) were all coming down the pipe to meet their artificial budget limit.
And this is not a case of no money - this is a deliberate and intentional choice of budget allocation away from the public sector to landlords, tobacco companies, private school operators, and road operators to name a few.
Today, Chris Bishop and Shane Reti said the $3bn Dunedin Hospital cost is “unaffordable” and too expensive - yet the $70bn price tag for roads is not. And that includes the East-West link that would be the most expensive road in the world for little benefit!
Or the $8bn for landlords over a decade. Or the $35.7bn for tax cuts over a decade.
These short term cuts to our services, people and investment, are shortsighted because ultimately our population is aging, people have health needs all the time, cuts to hospitals/IT systems and investment will need to catch up, and the government has burdened the health system by repealing smoke free, reinstating prescription fees, discouraging cycling, killing off many Maori-health supports, and telling GPs to raise their fees etc.
This will all, ALL, add up as a ballooning health debt that all of NZ will have to pay for - and at a much higher cost tomorrow.
Related reading:
There just doesn't seem to be any end to this wrecking ball of a govt. As I've said before more steps to serfdom
Very very stark truths Tui.