I have finally managed to sit down and finish Gareth Morgan’s book, Health Cheque,  on the New Zealand health care system (long international flights are at least good for something). I find most of Morgan’s books a little superficial for my tastes and Health Cheque is certainly no exception, lacking, as it does, any deep [...]

In part 1 of this post I pointed out how democracy is prevented from becoming mob rule by the devolution of power to parliament – allowing the people their full say only once every three years. It is for this reason that I think direct democracy efforts such as binding referenda are doomed to fail. [...]

I blogged a while ago that I thought John Key was a lot smarter than he seemed. I’ve read a number of opinion pieces that describe National’s use of urgency in very unflattering terms, ranging from arrogant to dumb. The description usually depends on whether the commentator thinks the legislation is trivial (dumb) or abhorrent [...]

The Government has made good on its promise to fully fund the year-long course of Herceptin. And about time, too. Ruth Dyson sets the record for the most disingenuous comment of the day. The Government had set a dangerous precedent by overruling medical experts. Balderdash, Ruth. Did you really think that National made this decision by sucking it [...]

Having finished with the head-to-head comparisons, National has one part of it’s health policy left – it’s medicines policy. Pharmac is the government department that doctors love to hate. We scratch our heads over the ramblings of the Ministry of Health and complain bitterly about directives from our DHBs, but Pharmac are the people with [...]

National has confirmed it’s policy that it will fully fund the 52 week Herceptin course instead of the 9 week one currently funded by Pharmac. This is good news for women, although Labour doesn’t seem to think so, calling it a “ludicrous” ad-hoc medicines strategy. As I have blogged on a number of occasions (just search [...]

There’s a joke that goes “what’s the difference between a conspiracy theorist and an investigative reporter?” – Answer: “The first thinks someone is out to get him, the second can prove it.” Okay, so it’s not a great joke. What can you expect from someone who thinks medicine, politics and economics is fun? There are [...]

Another part of the health care system that is failing to provide adequate care is Radiation Therapy for cancer patients. Auckland DHB has resumed sending people to Australia and down to Hamilton to get radiotherapy, because they are having trouble providing it due to ailing equipment and staff shortages. For breast cancer, you should have [...]

Today, Jim Anderton obligingly released National’s draft health policy. Odd. I didn’t realise he had moved to National. When was that announced? Anyway. Seeing as this is certainly a MacDoctor Moment, let’s take them item by item. – 20 more theatres in three years at an expected cost of $165 million over four years; – [...]

An expression of shock came from the UICC (International Union Against Cancer) World Cancer Congress last week because New Zealand is the only first world country not to fund the 12 month course of Herceptin. I have a number of doctor friends overseas. When I told them about Pharmac’s decision to fund only a nine-week course [...]