July 7th 2008

Hospitals exist to prolong life even past the point when aged patients would rather the plug be pulled. One would naturally draw the conclusion that those entering this world would receive as great if not greater a priority in order they get the best kick start to life. Not if you live in Greymouth it would seem. There, they slip the prospective mother five crisp $20 notes and send her off on the bus 230 odd kms over the mountain pass to Christchurch. Not enough medical staff they say....
You can bet your bottom dollar they have their full complement of bureaucrats, managers, IT staff.. and of course HR personnel. Medical staff in a hospital these days always seem to be the last priority. Not just Greymouth, its virtually every hospital in the country. We can't attract them and pay them enough they cry... They could if the priorities were shifted, the middle management obliterated, cutting out all the crap and concentrating totally on medical solutions. The government seem to have plenty of money to splash around on Rugby World Cups, Americas Cups, Sport and Recreation (47 of their staff are paid in excess of $100,000pa). It's all a matter of priorites and those in power have a got a pretty skewed view of where they lie.

John Key and his ragtag cohorts would do better spending time formulating a coherrent health policy rather than inventing policy on the hoof . Whether TVNZ gets $15 million for its local programmes or it goes direct to Creative NZ matters nowt to the ladies trudging over the Alps to bear their offspring.

Loved the wee article buried in todays Press.........
British police are considering making their tracker dogs wear little woollen booties when searching muslim houses so as not to offend the inhabitants' sensibilities. Oh.. it's a gloriously silly world we live in!!!

TC