Interpreters

The question of interpreters for patients came up at the ADHB meeting yesterday. There is government funding for interpreters in hospitals and now it looks like the system will be extended to all GP practices as well. Wayne Brown, the outgoing chairman of the ADHB made a very important comment that the costs of this could blow out very easily. He suggested that it should be limited to telly or video calls using free software and the contracts should be let offshore if cost effective contracts cannot be negotiated here.

I would have to say I agree 100% with this. An alternaitve would be to try to argue to central government that this would be best handled through charities who support patients.

There was a very good presentation from staff at the school of population health on immigrant health issues. There are over 200 ethnicities now represented in the ADHB region. If we insisted on employing an interpreter for each language I can see a situation developing rapidly where, if no one could fill the vacancy for a small ethnic group we would have to recruit someone from overseas and get them to immigate here!

I would be interested in others thoughts and I will follow this situation closely if elected (and probably if I’m not!)

Health Dollars Blown On Bureaucracy

DHBNZ has voted to oppose Auckland getting  Positron Emission tomograpy (PET) for cancer patients. PET is used widely overseas including in Australia and is even used in the US for family pets.

DHBNZ was not formed directly by government or by a single DHB and so I have serious issues with its appearing to sit outside the democratic system. It is also costing each health board a heap of money! 

Here’s what Heather Roy has to say:

ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy today questioned what value there was in being a member of District Health Boards New Zealand, given that this membership is costing DHBs around the country tens of thousands of dollars each year.

“These figures – the first released by DHB NZ since it became subject to the Official Information Act – show that being signed up to DHBNZ cost the country’s DHBs a total of $723,040 in the

2006/07 financial year alone,” Mrs Roy said.

“Broken down, this was tens of thousands of dollars paid by each individual DHB for that year – with Canterbury, Waitemata and Counties-Manukau DHBs each paying an astounding $89,280, $86,560 and $80,320 respectively.

“Given that $723,040 could fund a large number of surgical procedures

- approximately 25 Coronary Bypasses, 47 Hip Replacements operations, or 241 cataract operations – this information raises serious questions about the sort of value there is to be gained in our DHBs being signed up to this national body.

“The question of value is even more pertinent in light of the fact that Auckland withdrew from the national body more than two years ago, and Canterbury DHB voted to follow suit in July

13 of this year – with Chair Syd Bradley having been reported in the media as believing that CDHB was not getting value for money and criticising DHBNZ as a ‘flawed and unaccountable’ entity.

“These comments, combined with the amount of Health dollars being poured into DHBNZ membership – enough money to provide grommets for a massive 628 children – are extremely worrying.

“Precious Health dollars should be spent on alleviating the pain and suffering of those waiting far too long on hospital waiting lists not on the extra layer of pointless and ineffectual bureaucracy that DHBNZ represents,” Mrs Roy said.

ENDS

I’d like to have a crack at solving this problem

Unhealthy figures. Thursday, 20 September 2007, 5:00:00 a.m.

The health system is wasting almost $60 million a year because nearly one in 10 people fail to attend medical appointments because they can’t get there, New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone says. He told Parliament 188,000 hospital…More

Any ideas?

Major study finds New Zealanders hugely concerned with Public Health Service

16 September 2007 New Zealanders would support radical changes – including a ‘Cullen Fund’ type account for health care and letting the private sector tender for more public work – to overcome what they see as an inefficient and worsening health system, research released today shows. There is also support for extending the Accident Compensation Scheme to cover catastrophic illnesses like cancer. 

Two in three New Zealanders believe the public health system is inefficient and almost half of all New Zealanders believe the system has got worse in the past five years, though not for them themselves and their families, according to the research undertaken by ShapeNZ for the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development.

My letter to ADHB voters

A more reader and printer friendly version can be found here.

Dear voter,

I am running for the ADHB in the upcoming local body elections on 13^th October.

My main concerns in running are

·        modern state of the art patient care, with reduced waiting times

·        improved staff/management relations and, the related

·        recruitment and retention of the best staff

·        investment in state of the art equipment

·        the importance of core activities over feel-good vote catching initiatives

·        medical personnel should feature prominently in the management of the health system

·        meticulous conflict of interest reporting, transparency and accountability

·        cost effectiveness through a lean efficient bureaucracy

·        long term sustainable planning for the good of the whole community, not short term planning driven by ideology or the 3 – yearly election cycle.

·        elected representatives should represent, not dictate!

If you feel this has merit I would appreciate you considering voting for me and circulating my name and that of our team.

Details can be found at our blogsite,http://aucklandhealth.wordpress.com/.

Above all I am for representative democracy and freedom of thought, speech and expression. Politicians don’t have all the answers, that’s why our country needs open, rational debate. I am more than happy to listen to thoughts and suggestions, either blogged (anonymously if you like) or sent to me at k.o.hicks@xtra.co.nz. I am very interested in your ideas.

I am also more than happy (ecstatic would be more appropriate) if anyone would like to assist in the campaign. Most people either are apathetic about local politics. However, these organisations move vast sums of our money, often with less than desirable accountability. We live in a participatory democracy, and if you don’t use it you tend to lose it. So if you want to vote for me/us that would be great, and if you don’t want to then please get out and vote anyway! Many thanks for reading this

Cheers, Kevin Hicks.   “Lets get pet!” (Positron emission tomography)  

*      (7 Ë:“

Kevin Hicks BSc, BVSc, PhD, MACVScSenior Research FellowExperimental Oncology GroupAuckland Cancer Society Research CentreThe University of AucklandPrivate Bag 92019Auckland, New Zealand  Phone: 027 313 8382 Mobile  027 313 8382 Email:   k.hicks@auckland.ac.nzhttp://www.cancer-centre.auckland.ac.nz  https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/faculty/staffct/staff_details.aspx?staffID=6B686963303034

Lifelong Auckland resident andAuckland Area Health Board Candidate26 Duke St, Mt Roskill, AucklandË Mobile 027 313 8382 :Email: k.o.hicks@xtra.co.nz  — Have your say at:http://aucklandhealth.wordpress.com/ ò< Download our brochure: http://aucklandhealth.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/adhbcrbrochurecolourv4.pdf & Stay informed: Email k.o.hicks@xtra.co.nz to receive news by email

 Who are we? http://aucklandhealth.wordpress.com/—Read OUR BROCHURE 

Kevin Hicks                  Mobile: 027 313 8382     Email: k.o.hicks@xtra.co.nz (Email for news updates)

Ian Ward                      Mobile: 021 500 665       Email: ianrward@xtra.co.nz 

Belinda Kusabs            Mobile: 021 521 229       Email: Kusabs@woosh.co.nz

Ram Rai                       Mobile: 021 655 922       Email: ramrai@dakshin.co.nz 

Brian Fergus    Mobile: 021 111 4684     Email: bfergus@xtra.co.nz

“Lets get PET” (Positron emission tomography) or lets at least find a way of affording it!

Please rank us 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 on the election form

Election timetable 27 July 2007 Nominations open 24 August 2007 Nominations close at noon 21 September 2007 – 26 September 2007 Voting period starts – voting documents delivered 13 October 2007 Election day – voting closes at noon13 October 2007 – 17 October 2007 Votes counted17 October 2007 – 24 October 2007 Official results declared

http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/members/elections/default.asp 

http://www.arc.govt.nz/arc/index.cfm?6BFE9BC8-BCD4-1A24-9881-A2BC695F5BF3CAB35E63-88E4-4358-889C-043A012DF815 

http://www.moh.govt.nz/dhbelections http://www.adhb.govt.nz/ 

CAUTION: The opinions expressed in this email or on my blog are strictly my own, no offence is intended or implied, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers, colleagues, co-candidates, friends, relatives, acquaintances or people or organisations who advertise with me.

Waitemata A&E Woes – Lets not let it happen in Auckland!

There is an interesting discussion on Kiwiblog about a patient having to wait 30 hours for a bed at Waitemata District Health Board emergency department. As I said there, key core activities such as accident and emergency should be absolute top priority.

One way to do this is to put more resources into top staff and facilites. As I said there:

The A&E services at major hospitals are a critical core activity that should never be neglected. This strikes at the very heart of universal and equal access to vital services at your time of need. 

Poor employee relations caused by aggressive administrators have caused a lack of morale in key staff such as doctors and nurses which adds to the difficulty of recruiting and retaining professionals with the skills we need. We must target investment into retaining highly trained experienced staff and making them feel like vital members of the team along with developing state of the art facilities in these core activities. This is a top priority while administrative overheads should be kept the minimum required for efficient management.

This new environment and attitude will encourage top medical and nursing staff to stay here.

Kevin Hicks

Ph 027 313 8382

k.o.hicks@xtra.co.nz (if its working now )

Hello Auckland! Welcome to Our Campaign Site

Welcome to the our site where we will post details of the Auckland Ddistrict Health Board campaign. We hope this can be a general discussion forum for Auckland Health related matters during and after the 2007 Elections. We am vitally interested the health of Aucklanders and consider it vital that the ADHB remains the leading health, teaching and research institution in the country.

We believe in consensus politics and freedom of speech and expression. Consequently we welcome your comments and suggestions no matter how critical they are. We welcome both named and anonymous comments and we are also happy to  give you full credit for any suggestions.

Please rank all the C&R CANDIDATES in the top five