Roads of significance, or critical hospitals?
The announcement regarding downgrading the new Dunedin hospital is an absolute disgrace.
It is also an insult to the people and health professionals of Otago and Southland (along with thousands of tourists who will expect quality health services when they visit).
How dare they go against the hours of thoughtful, insightful research and thorough investigation of our health specialists?
They spent their precious time deciding on the plans, equipment, and size of this vitally important and necessary facility.
It’s not a Champagne model, but one that is practical and functional for today and for future needs.
The interference from the Ministry of Health along the way, has done nothing to address health needs or demographic and health service challenges of this region from a position of knowledge.
The bureaucrats in Wellington have focused on money and costs at every turn. They are directly responsible for the escalation in costs overrun, which they must be held responsible for.
The people of this region are resolute that the original plan is the only one which is fit-for-purpose.
Every political party is responsible for bending to the whims of faceless officials over recent years.
The attitude and blockages coming from that ministry would have been entirely different if this hospital was to be built in Auckland.
We have a proud history and reputation in our region of world-class, quality, medicine and research, which benefits New Zealanders. Surely a necessary new Dunedin hospital is much more important and vitally necessary to the wellbeing of this region than a massive spend on "Roads of National Significance."
There in spirit
While I wait for a knee replacement I am unable to join the march this Saturday.
This march is for the entire southern region. I encourage anyone who can to attend.
It is imperative that our base hospital situated in Dunedin but servicing the population south of the Waitaki including Rakiura and the southern islands and ocean is built to the plan.
Untrustworthy
So promises made by National before the election mean nothing.
Who do we trust?
Familiar words
Oh dear.
What Dunedin really wanted to hear Dr Reti say, on behalf of his National-led government, was "a National government will build the hospital Dunedin needs. National will deliver all the beds, operating theatres and radiology services that Labour removed.
"The cost of this commitment . . . will be fully funded as part of the National government’s programme of capital investment.
"Today’s announcement is the latest in National’s plans to boost New Zealand’s public health system.
"The South deserves a hospital that will be fit-for-purpose for generations, not a patch-up job.
"The previous National government committed to delivering the hospital that people in the South needed, and we will follow through with that promise."
Oh, wait.
That is exactly what National did say in its pre-election promises still accessible on its website.
What a difference a year can make.
I'm off to buy shares in Tui beer.
Ramphal obituary recalls a brave speech
The brief obituary of Sir Shridath (Sonny) Ramphal (ODT 21.9.24) brought back vivid memories for me.
I was on sabbatical leave in London for the whole of 1976.
Before leaving New Zealand, I had been advised to join several organisations which could "be of benefit to me during my time in England", which I did. They enabled me to attend functions at Windsor Castle, Churchill’s War Rooms, and the Houses of Parliament, for example.
The opportunity to attend the AGM of one of these organisations was not to be missed as it was to be held in the magnificent Egyptian room of the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, so I duly turned up. The room was full.
As the official party, led by the Lord Mayor, filed in everyone stood.
All went smoothly until an address was given by Sonny Ramphal, then in the first year of his appointment as Commonwealth secretary-general.
I thought his talk was thought-provoking and quite disturbing. It lasted 50 minutes, which many felt was too long, but he had dared to give a serious speech and to raise the problems of the emergent nations in Southern Africa, suggesting the probability of armed conflict in Rhodesia (which he called Zimbabwe), and talking about apartheid and the poverty of the Third World, much of which was amongst members of the Commonwealth.
From the mutterings going on around me, it became obvious that some didn’t like what he had to say one little bit. I even heard a lady behind me say "How dare he speak to us like that."
How times have changed since then, and Sonny Ramphal played an important role in that change.
Betrayed and abandoned
No editorial could be more succinct than yours of today (ODT, 27.9.24). I suspect a main desire for allocation of funds, and a proposal to downsize our hospital is to enable the Government’s oft-stated desire to establish a teaching hospital in Hamilton rather than extend courses already available at our world-renowned Dunedin-based hospital. Indeed, should others feel as nauseated as I on hearing and watching the body-language of our Minister of Health and Chris Bishop as they made their announcement, I suggest the need for immediate enlargement of initial building plans.
Betrayed and abandoned. No amount of marches, letters or speeches about the hospital cuts will change the mind of the government. They don’t have the courage to rethink the situation because they are busy sucking up to landlords, the tobacco industry and the Auckland region. The only way to get our new hospital the way it was promised (the way they promised) is to get rid of this cruel and untrustworthy coalition.
NZ needs large infrastructure projects like the Dunedin hospital rebuild. That’s how we survived the long winter of 1870 to 1895 and the Great depression of the 1930s. Once upon a time the rebuild would have been put into the hands of the Ministry of Works and they would have built the hospital by now. The current government knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Why did Chris Bishop and Shane Reti waste taxpayers’ money flying down to Dunedin to only confirm that their promise to build our new Dunedin hospital to original plan was nothing but a political expedient and a big fat lie! Christopher Luxon is not to be trusted as prime minister in charge.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
