The scenes outside the National Party conference serve only to remind me that the left apparently continue to favour unreasoning force rather than reasonable debate to promote their views. I would be interested in someone with socialist/union leanings explaining exactly how storming a police cordon, and trespassing on private property, with the express purpose of [...]

Until this morning, I did not know who Peter Snell was. I was, therefore, somewhat surprised to see a large front page spread in the Weekend Herald getting all excited about a 71-year-old man having heart disease. It seemed to me to be somewhat reminiscent of the famous “cat stuck in tree” line. I was [...]

Yet another child has been attacked by vicious dogs and severely injured. The dogs have been destroyed but the owner, unfortunately remains very much alive and able to own more dogs. Sure, he will be banned from owning dogs, but seeing as he is unlikely to have microchipped or licensed his previous dogs, this will [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Well, half the headline is ok… DHBs, union clash over plan to axe 20 doctors Plans to cut 20 resident doctor positions at Auckland hospitals will increase the pressure on remaining staff and threatens standards of patient care, a [...]

The MacDoctor was doing locums (aka mercenary medicine) for about five years and only settled in a position this year. Technically, of course, all jobs could be considered mercenary, to some extent, because few of us would work if we didn’t get paid for it. However, there is no doubt that money is the most [...]

Such an interesting range of reactions in the blogosphere to Paula Bennett’s revealing of the amount of benefit the two ladies who features the the Herald over the weekend are receiving. Natasha Fuller and Jennifer Johnston appear in the article entitled Govt axe destroys dreams, claiming that Bennet’s removal of the allowance for sole parent [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. (MacDoctor definition) And now for a spot more medical spam… Doctors fear added training strain While the $25 million Budget boost for training extra doctors is a step in the right direction, it will also create problems of its [...]

After placing absurdly onerous language requirements and a blanket ban on nursing courses that are less than four years (regardless of quality), the Nursing Council has now unveiled it’s true concern about Philippino nurses – the sudden profusion of nurses in “nursing education”. Apparently nursing courses have increased from 30,000 in training in 2004 to 450,000 this [...]

The Editor of the Herald rightly calls for the extremely dumb and pointless cap on university funding to be removed. As far as I can tell, this was placed on universities as a reaction to some courses of very dubious value being offered in order to generate funds. As the editorial points out, it makes [...]

I see that medical council is starting consultation over a peer-review system for doctors. I like Ron Paterson’s comment on the idea. “It is the body that is saying to the New Zealand public ‘yes, this doctor has a warrant of fitness’, and I think at the moment we have a tougher warrant of fitness [...]