The powerful Senate Finance committee has just voted down two proposed amendments to Obama’s healthcare reform bill; amendments that would have created a public insurance scheme as a key part of insuring some of America’s 47 million uninsured. Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s amendment would have added a public insurance option that would reimburse doctors and hospitals [...]

I see Labour is bellyaching about the proposed new National Health Board again. Labour’s health spokeswoman, Ruth Dyson, said Mr Ryall had already make up his mind about the future direction of health services. “This is more about Mr Ryall trying to impose his own vision for health than about a genuine attempt to make [...]

The serious accident over the weekend involving a car ploughing into four cyclists has brought out the usual knee-jerk response from the cycling associations. This from Cycle Action Auckland: She hoped Auckland Mayor John Banks would be prepared to discuss options such as narrowing the traffic lanes to provide more space for cyclists, and lowering [...]

You would think that child abuse would be something that at least the police would take seriously, but it appears not. The Dom Post runs an article on the massive backlog of child abuse cases that has been known about since 2006 but is only now being subject to an investigation. It seems that little [...]

The cell-phone sage just got sillier. Apparently, it will be illegal to use the navigation system on your Sat Nav phone but not the one on a dedicated Satellite Navigation system such as NavMan. The only way this makes any sense at all is if it is the result of intensive lobbying by dedicated systems [...]

The HoS reports that Waitakere Hospital’s emergency department closes its doors after 6.30 at night and emergencies are redirected to the Whitecross A&M or to North Shore Hospital, 25 minutes drive away. Actually, this is not news at all. Waitakere hospital has been doing this for nearly a year. The only thing that has changed [...]

May as well print this up now guys. Len Brown tells us that he would relish the opportunity to work alongside Sue Bradford on the Auckland Super City Council. Seeing as Ms. Bradford appears to think that 87% of the country are morons, I would say supporting her for the city council would be the [...]

Ron Paterson reckons that up to 85% of terminally ill New Zealanders do not get support when they need it to have a “good death”. He was speaking at a seminar on the Liverpool Care Pathway for Dying Patients at the time. This “statistic” has the hallmarks of guesswork rather than reality, as Paterson is [...]

Following the media circus (New Zealand media, at any rate) that is John Key in the US, one can’t help have a little sympathy for Fran O’Sullivan’s severe attack of cultural cringe in her Saturday Column. She wails: Why is it that the travelling press troupe following John Key about in New York are sending back [...]

Stuff reports on a new vaccine that has been shown to provide some protection against AIDS. The vaccine was shown to reduce the incidence of contracting the disease by 31%. All other vaccines against AIDS have been abject failures.  While this is indeed great news, the MacDoctor cautions against breaking out the champaign. 31% is [...]