Private sector the way to go for PET scanning
I agree with "name withheld" (ODT 28.9.23) about the need for PET Scanning to be available for those who need it to manage their cancer, but I think a scanner in Dunedin is best financed and set up by the private sector.
PET scanning is not needed on an urgent basis like CT and MRI scanning so there is no reason why it has to be installed in the new hospital. What is needed is for the local health authority to budget for using the private facility for needful patients.
In my own field of urology, an expensive new technology emerged in the 1990s called lithotripsy. This technology enabled many kidney stones to be crushed by an external beam of energy rather than needing major open surgery. A private group purchased the lithotripter machine which was set up in a bus which travelled to the centres in New Zealand where the need was. Hospitals budgeted to send suitable patients for treatment.
Imagine the parochial furore, inefficiency and cost if hospitals had been left to compete among themselves for this new technology.
David Seymour of Act New Zealand made the insightful comment recently that New Zealanders expect first world health services but we have a second world economy. Our people and most of our politicians are naive or deliberately blind on health issues. We have to compromise on what we do. Our whole gross domestic product could be spent on health. The government is to be congratulated for resisting the pressure to overspend on health.
On the other hand
Two recent items in the ODT (28.9, 29.9.23) reflect the parlous state of cancer management in Dunedin: former deputy mayor Chris Staynes and a writer in these columns both had to pay some thousands of dollars for PET scans. They are not the only ones. Many cancer patients funding themselves have had to travel to Christchurch or Melbourne (notably, less expensive across the Tasman than in our own country) for a scan in the private sector. If you can't afford it, tough.
And yet, all we will have in our new hospital is an empty space where a PET scanner should have been, but won’t. Relying on the private sector (Pacific Radiology plan to install a PET scanner in Dunedin by 2025) is a partial answer, but as former Medical School dean Rathan Subramaniam has commented (25.9.23), "using the private sector as a mitigation strategy . . . would weaken the public health system, stunt workforce development, and lead to a costlier health model long term."
I have been pushing for a publicly-funded PET scanner to be operative from the opening day of the new hospital. Having two scanners in the city will enable the hospital scanner to offer a nation-wide service for cancer management in the public sector. And in that case, cancer specialists would find Dunedin a most attractive employment prospect.
Dog whistling
I must admit to not knowing exactly what the term “dog whistling” means when used largely by PM Hipkins and others such as Metiria Stanton Turei when referring to everyone opposed to their particular ideology around race-based policies. Apparently, it is the use of coded or suggestive language without provoking opposition. Dogs can hear an ultrasonic whistle, but not humans.
What I’m wondering is, what is the term which could be used when people like the leaders of the Labour Party, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori insist that one section of our society are inherently entitled to more than anyone else because of race? Is it also “dog whistling”, or “racist” or is this term not able to be applied when used by these groups? Put more simply, is racism a one-way assessment of societal views?
Have voters already made their minds up?
Political polls can be seen as pretty accurate if a number of them are averaged out. In the last month we have had four Verian and two Reid Research polls. The averages are consistent, with Labour on 27%, National 36%. Greens 13%, Act New Zealand 12% and NZ First 5%. The political polls within the month leading up to the 2017 and 2020 elections were within 1-2% of the actual results.
The new policies that have been announced by the various political parties do not appear to sway the statistics more than a point here and there. The old saying is that governments lose elections and opposition parties do not win them. I believe that voters look at what a government has done, or has not done in their term of office. Unpopular legislation can bring a government down and there has been the Three Waters legislation, co-governance issues together with Covid lockdown restrictions.
The 2020 election saw early voting popular, with the Greens having a 78% early vote. National had a 67% turnout with all others above this figure. This election is likely to have similar numbers, indicating that the majority of voters have already made their minds up. I will be an early voter.
Pay attention David
For the benefit of Act New Zealand leader David Seymour, and at the risk of repeating myself here; when historically racist policies continue to cause problems in society today, it is inevitable that addressing those problems involves some race-based policies. Attacking those policies as racist, endorses the original historical causes, and is racist.
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