Parking issues are real issues for ICU patients
I totally concur with John Neilson (Letters ODT 14.10.24) regarding parking when visiting the hospital.
We recently had a close family member in ICU for a week and the wider family having to travel from Southland on a regular basis. The hospital first response and ED and ICU staff were fantastic and could not have done more.
Parking was a nightmare. Yes, we could park for most of the day in the Meridian (plenty of spaces) at $30/day. Otherwise, it was a massive headache for a stressed-out family.
Cr Steve Walker’s response was, at best condescending but no more than I would expect from one of the councillors who puts dogma before compassion. Is it really beyond the abilities of DCC and HNZ/Southern Health to sort something out?
Patients and relatives come to Dunedin Hospital from across the South Island and beyond. Not many can get there by bicycle and public transport is almost non-existent. It is time some of our elected representatives got real and started thinking about the public rather than their pet projects.
David Tordoff
Dunedin
Relief and frustration
Sadly what Steve Walker fails to acknowledge and understand is the extreme frustration that John Neilson and others like myself have regards access to the hospital. It is impossible for many of us to ride a bike to our appointments. The question really being asked is what can Steve do to relieve our frustration and difficulties to access the hospital?
Alan Paterson
Dunedin
A just war
David Jenkins and Oliver Jutel (Opinion ODT 9.10.24) think the University of Otago should move beyond institutional neutrality and take an ethical stance of distancing itself from relations with Israel.
There will be others who agree with Jenkins and Jutel, as can be evidenced by the popularity of the pro-Palestine rallies, and the proliferation of pro-Palestine graffiti and posters around Dunedin. There will be others however who disagree, and are alarmed at a rise of anti-Semitism. I talked with two pro-Palestine protesters in the Octagon, who assured me that the present war did not start on October 7, 2023, but in 1948 (in other words, that Israel has no right to exist).
The accusation that Israel is committing a genocide is itself a thinly-disguised form of anti-Semitism. While some people are pacifists and think war is never justified, most believe there is such a thing as a "just war". This is why New Zealand and most other countries have armed forces and have gone to war.
If ever there were an acceptable pretext for a just war, the events of October 7 would surely constitute one. If this seems questionable, perhaps watch the video evidence of what took place on that day.
It is anti-Semitic to think that Israel alone should have a different standard to other nations for when it is allowed to make a "just war".
If accusations of genocide are to be made, it seems clear both from its actions, and from the statements of its leaders, that Hamas has the intent to cause genocide, but lacks the capability.
Israel on the other hand has the military capability, but lacks the intent, as evidenced by the fact that, however tragic, the death toll of Palestinians in the current war stands at 40,000 out of the total population of 2 million living in the Gaza strip.
Malcolm Moncrief-Spittle
Dunedin
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
Hospital saga shows MPs in a very dim light
The debacle of the Dunedin hospital paints many of our politicians in a very dim light, metaphorically and intellectually. The actions and attitudes of principal players have entailed laughable political chicanery, and unbelievable contortions in trying to justify the decision not to proceed with the majority of the project.
If they expect the citizens of the South to swallow the so-called reasons for the outcome, they must think we are as naive as they have been in cooking them up. Perhaps the initial shilly-shallying of Dunedin’s mayor misled the coalition to believe that we would be a pushover.
The old chestnut of citing a negative recommendation by consultants just will not wash. Another spurious statement was that a blowout in costs (of dubious provenance) would make the project the dearest ever built. Give us a break; who has heard of a new project, equipped properly to cope with the present and prudently provide for the future, coming in under budget?
Tony Harris
Mosgiel
Survival of the fittest
Whether we acknowledge it or not, our only remaining significant industry are students.
Without the Otago University and Otago Polytechnic, we are just another service city, with little to distinguish us from other service towns and cities in New Zealand. Otago Medical School has been the jewel in our Otago University’s international reputation.
If we allow our new hospital to be "B" grade, then how do we hope to retain and attract the specialist consultants we need to teach our medical students and retain our reputation as a medical school of excellence?
To survive and prosper Dunedin must demand that the government honours its promise and builds us the hospital they promised.
Peter White
Dunedin
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
