Go our mayor and deputy mayor. Really nice to see them on the front page of the ODT today (25.3.23) , with their statement "They save, we pay."
Quite frankly I have had enough of those supposedly designing and responsible for the new hospital. How long has this been in the planning? All they have achieved is to get cuts.
How can the statement be made in the ODT (24.3.23) that "the majority of patients, people with disabilities, the elderly, children, whanau and visitors will access the hospital as pedestrians." Seriously? This is supposed to be a hospital, or have I got this wrong?
I think this whole project needs to stop until you find someone who can actually run a project like this and achieve what it is meant to be — a hospital for this city and beyond, not a glorified medical centre with a few extras, which is all it will be by the time it is built.
Lyn Meinders
Normanby
One has to wonder what alternative reality the Jasmax urban designers inhabit with their statement that people with disabilities and the elderly will access the new Dunedin hospital by walking (ODT 24.3.23).
One would have thought that those were the very people unable to walk any significant distance and who would require safe and convenient vehicle access right to the main entry door of the hospital.
Then there is the fact that the hospital is intended to serve the wider Otago region and for out-of-town patients there is simply no viable alternative for the foreseeable future to accessing the hospital other than by private motor vehicle.
One of the greatest frustrations and barriers to access to the existing hospital for us folk from up Central is the chronic lack of parking anywhere near it.
Unless this is provided it will simply drive growing pressure for a regional hospital based in Central Otago, to the detriment of Dunedin.
Peter Dymock
Alexandra
The article on the front page of Friday’s ODT (24.3.23) is a little early for an April Fool’s joke? It states that the majority of patients, people with disabilities . . . will access the hospital as pedestrians. Of course they will have to, as most of the parking in that area may be eliminated.
I would feel sorry for those with mobility issues that are not severe enough to qualify for a mobility card. Why can’t the DCC planners leave things alone and stop wasting ratepayers’ money unless there is a proven need for the changes?
R. Morey
Dunedin
It is of little surprise that no party will commit to take back spending cuts announced for the new Dunedin hospital.
Not only are all our political parties committed to an economic system that has come to its end, but our representatives will most likely be not all that much affected by the cuts.
The reality is, we are living in a two-class health environment. And no, the divide is, in this case, not Cook Strait, but access to private health insurance.
No wonder mayors of Central Otago don't back Dunedin's call to lobby for the full-size hospital. The majority of their constituents will have private health insurance, so building a private health centre in, let's say, Queenstown, is on their agenda.
Do we really trust people to make the decision for us, the uninsured, who will not be affected by their own decisions?
Shouldn't we ask those that make the decisions about our public health system, if they have private health insurance? I bet they have.
Richard Vinbrux
Oamaru
[Abridged]
Toitu Otago anniversary documentary praised
I would like to extend congratulations to Toitu Otago Settlers Museum on their hour-length documentary Journey to New Edinburgh which has been screening free at the museum to coincide with the 175th celebrations of the founding of Dunedin. The documentary was professional and the presentation by Sean Brosnahan was both flawless and captivating from start to finish.
The documentary was worthy of mainstream television and, for its historical content should have been shown in all local high schools leading up to this significant anniversary. As a descendant of a passenger on the Philip Laing, I thought I knew, through reading historical books, all about the events which led up to the settlement of Dunedin. But this documentary explained so much more about what my ancestor had to endure in order to start a new life in this country.
Heather Bray
Corstorphine
Ram-raiders of tomorrow
On the front page (ODT 18.3.23) an intermediate school principal labels student behaviour (on St Patrick’s Day) as "dumb, immature and disruptive".
She goes on to say the community needs to tell the students their behaviour is not appropriate.
How the community might do that she does not say.
Perhaps the cause of the behaviour the school principal dislikes is that her colleague primary school principals’ views of appropriate behaviour are wider than hers, and so the children pass on to university "dumb, immature and disruptive".
The next generation of recidivist ram-raiders in the making?
John McGhee
Brockville
Posie Parker. PHOTO: RNZ
For and against on the Posie Parker poser
Firstly I would say I have no sympathy for any message that Posie Parker brings and believe that if all the opposing voices ignored her and blanked social media it would have been a far better outcome.
The fact she was attacked and made to fear for her life makes me very concerned for the way New Zealanders react to things they disagree with. When violence and extremism is our recourse we are travelling down a worrying path. We started this with anti-lockdown, anti-managed isolation, anti-vax and other antis.
The democratic process allows us the freedom to listen and make up our own minds. This behaviour is another dent in our democracy. How many dents can we take?
David Tait
Queenstown
Why is it that people who are ultra sensitive about trans rights are so viciously insensitive about people who do not share their opinions? B. A. Thompson, (ODT, 25.5.23) alleges that Posie Parker is an appalling idiot.
After following her posts for a couple of years I have seen no evidence of that. All I have seen is a brave, articulate woman speaking up for the rights of women and children. In Mr Thompson’s favour, he does agree Posie Parker has a right to speak. Not so most mainstream media, politicians, and trans activists who are determined to silence her.
Christopher Horan
Lake Hawea
BIBLE READING: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. — Romans 3:23..
