Worried about the calls to privatise our public health system?

Concerned about falling numbers of doctors and nurses and the increasing difficulty of getting access to medical care when you need it?

Dr Gary Payinda MD MA DDU FACEP FACEM is an Emergency Medical Doctor in Te Tai Tokerau Northland. He is at the frontline of our health care system and he spoke to me frankly about what has gone wrong with our hospitals, what we need to to do to fix them, and why we need to do it .

While the mainstream media tend to uncritically carry the government’s message that cuts to our health system are necessary because the budget is “blowing out”, the fact of the matter is that we have been seriously underfunding the public health service for the last 30 years.

A case in point - “In the 1970’s” Gary told me” there were 12 hospital beds for every 1000 New Zealanders. Today there are 2.5.”

Instead of calls for privatising our hospitals we need to expand our taxation base by making the wealthy top 1% pay their fair share, so that we we can all have free medical care when we need it.

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