Labour just announced that they will guarantee every eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurse a job in our health system. I'm so sick of hearing that graduating nurses can't find jobs when our healthcare system desperately needs more of them. Great stuff, Labour!
He truly is a most disingenuous and frankly lying minister and it is apparent why he is the National Party campaign manager because lying and bs is all that they are offering apart from their woeful record in govt. Watt, Goldsmith, Willis, Luxton, Upston, Standford et al they are all of the same ilk uncaring and self focussed. Three years is that many too long let's please be rid.
Friend of mine recently told me that he was rushed to Middlemore Hospital with acute appendicitis. Waited 9 hours until surgery. Luckily his appendix didn’t burst.
Hospitals all over the motu are really struggling. And what’s more I think Simeon Brown is an absolute coward and liar to boot v
Then it would read ' understand code brown is. I wrote 'understood code brown was'.
Don't know who named him 'code brown' but it rolls off the tongue quite nicely, and, 'skidmark brown' was already taken by an ex mayor from the far North.
I would venture Simeon is more a leech than a worm, sucking every last drop of blood out of Public Health and giving it to his mates in the Private system. The Public Health system is in severe crisis as you have written about extensively Nick and thanks for your efforts. What we never seem to hear about, which is my particular hobby horse, is Wait Lists. With the Health system under so much pressure right now, I can well imagine all those Wait Lists just getting bigger and longer. I know that the Wait List for Echocardiograms which is the Best determinant of heart issues was over 15,000 in 2025 with an over 10 month wait in some Health districts. Heaven knows what it is now, I suspect it won't not less. We just don't hear about Wait Lists...Curiously?? Maybe Simeon will tell me we don't have Wait Lists anymore and that everything is just fine a dandy. He may well have magicked them away, by kicking people off and making their doctors reapply, like Tony Ryall did in, ahem, Sir John Keys govt.
According to Dr Google, about 28,000 to 29,000 people are waiting for an echocardiogram. Recent reports suggest a postcode lottery, with progress in some areas, but many report waits of up to a year. It sounds like Waikato and Wellington are particularly bad.
Bloody hell, it's pretty much doubled in a year???? That is so saddening, as there will be hundreds if not thousands dying, when in many cases had they had an Echo a diagnosis may well have led to medication that would have saved their lives.
Many don’t even make it to waitlists as the GP referral is declined. If one isn't on the list in the first place, then it doesn't affect Simeon Brown's very narrow sit of goals and statistics, and the statistics can be gamed. Brown knows this, but...
Sadly, I know this only to well and it is not only GP referrals. Without going into all the details my wife would still be here if she wasn't declined an Echocardiogram after 2 referrals, one from her GP and one from a hospital department.
But when we have a government that borrows to give tax cuts to freaking landlords instead of funding a functional health service, we have to ask “why are people voting for that mob”?
Thank you Frances. It is wrong and I struggle that things could have been different. If only. It may sound like a strange perspective but when I'm feeling low I turn my mind to what is happening in Gaza, and know that is suffering beyond anything I might have.
People may well vote that Mob back into power. That possibility makes me very concerned about what kind of country we have become. The Govt. has done so much damage in so many areas, if they get back in everything we cherish will soon be gone. Too many are blinded by Me rather than We.
I so hope we can oust these Ghouls out come November.
So sorry to hear that Brian. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Those experiences, when shared, can be powerful in getting change for better. But, it shouldn't take the unnecessary passing of a loved one to get much needed improvement and better resourcing in our health system.
Thank you Paul. It isn't easy. Not a day goes by when it doesn't f..k with my head. I doubt Simeon would care frankly. For a supposed Christian, and I know some good ones, he breaks the glass ceiling for arseholes. Probably best I never encounter him as I would probably lose my sh.t in an unpleasant and uncharacteristic non violent manner. On the bright side I can only hope and live for a change of government. A caring and compassionate one, that we once had not that very long ago. I'm currently reading Jacinda's book and it brings back so many memories of what we once had and have now sadly lost.
No problem with you writing about health, Nick. Health is closely connected to so many other aspects of life we care about.
As I can’t afford a The Post subscription, I didn’t know ‘Doctoring’ Simeon Brown was ducking the ASMS conference on Thursday, or that National won’t even have a representative on the political panel. Perhaps he is grooming himself for higher office by following Luxon and Upston’s lead and avoiding those uncomfortable situations where open mockery, however richly deserved, might prick an inflated ego.
So that alone made today’s post worth its weight in gold. The cartoons were very well done too.
If you do want to hear from a National Party spokesperson on health, tomorrow, to mark the start of World Alzheimer’s Month, Alzheimers NZ is hosting an online political panel with representatives from five parties. National’s representative is Sam Uffindell, chair of the Health Committee, rather than merely a bed-leg holder propping up ever-increasing health needs.
As I write this, registrations are still open. I’ve also been told that, if time allows, questions submitted by the audience through Zoom may be put to the panel.
Given how little successive governments have provided in new funding for dementia support and services, there could be some interesting questions. Budget 2022 provided just $12 million over four years for seven regional pilots and a governance structure arising from the Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan 2020–2025. Budgets 2024, 2025 and 2026 have provided no comparable new dementia-specific funding.
Unsurprisingly, there are some deeply disappointed and disillusioned people across the dementia community and sector, if not some who are now downright angry.
On Health care, there is also the 2000 or so low paid caregivers in Auckland waiting to hear if they have a job as the competitive tendering process knocks out their employers as providers. We have a looming crisis in home care as older and/or disabled people rely on the services to be able to stay in their own homes. The caregivers have already been robbed of pay equity. Now it could be their jobs too.
It continues to flabbergasted me that National are doing as well as they are in the polls. Why isnt Labour galloping ahead and who on earth are these people who do vote for the Nats? I know that Labour has been subdued with their communications but really?
Yes Leonie. They are putting screeds of information out there but most of it is being ignored by the MSM. There seems to be a quiet right-wing revolution occurring inside media circles and I don't believe its accidental.
As mentioned previously take the' E out of Simeon ' and it's plain old Simon.., pseudo Christian ,liar, liar your undies are on fire.
Earlier this year I had seizure and was hospitalized for 10 weeks at NorthShore Hospital ( with 124% occupancy...single file in the corridor if you don't mind thanks very much.
The staff were fantastic, nurses truly are special bunch... kindness personified.
When it was coming time for me to be released, something bad happened.
I tried doing my older comedy routines...BUT
My attempts to combine nitrous oxide and Oxo Beef Cubes made me a laughing stock.
He isn't attending the Senior Medical Officer conference because they will hold him to account for his ineptitude.
As an RN in election year we are told to be apolitical, fuck them. I will tell it as I see it. Also making sure to check if people are enrolled to vote.
Simeon just part of a clown show except it's not funny. Down here north of Tauranga their building a private hospital at Te Puna up the road about 30 minutes is Omokoroa heaving at the seams with houses & new subdivisions which Labour had plans for a highschool the land was bought & immediately Nats got in stopped it. It wouldn't be that far in the future that Omokoroa could easily service a hospital (not a private one) as the whole area between Tauranga & Katikati is quite a big population but I guarantee nobody will think that far ahead.
It's shameful and disgraceful behaviour from an ex bank clerk turned Minister of Health who fails to listen to advice from medical experts. When he doesn't want to hear the uncomfortable truth about the terrible state of our public health system, he then resorts to using tactics such as a pre-recorded message instead of attending the ASMS conference and facing up to the inevitable questions. Talk about having an ostrich mentality and burying your head in the sand.
It is more important than ever that the voters of New Zealand ensure that this madness doesn't continue otherwise we can expect an American style private health system to gain a real foothold in this country.
Simeone Brown is a wilful liar! There is nothing he has said or done that stands up with even the most rudimentary scrutiny. For this man like, Bill Birch before him, he will stand in front of a live TV camera and lie from start to finish. If I were generous I might say he massages the truth. But that would be a lie of itself. Simeon Brown knows he has underfunded heathcare NZ, knows he has put a bar on all new appointments across the motu, and knows his only weapon is that of diversion and distraction. His pathetic "good morning to everyone but Chris Hipkins" was so banal and infantile it uterly beggared belief.
I feel your worm analogy is misplaced. Worms are environmentally useful. Minister Brown is a deceitful, lying and devious little shit. My wife just spent 24 hours on Friday/Saturday in North Shore Hospital The nurses and doctors were lovely but so so stretched and under-resourced. So many simple organisational things could be implemented to ease patients stress but there is a leadership vacuum. Her descriptor of her Friday night on the ward "hellhole" with inadequate resources, rude/frustrated/lonely patients with no support. So sad that we are in this state. I recall Dr Jonathan Coleman who was Health Minister in 2015-17 treating staff like Brown does. Compassionless right wingers.
This last weekend someone I know spent 16 hours in ED in great pain. Given morphine and when discharged with no possible or likely diagnosis, was given a referral to go and book his own ultrasound. Just another ED too overwhelmed.
Labour just announced that they will guarantee every eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurse a job in our health system. I'm so sick of hearing that graduating nurses can't find jobs when our healthcare system desperately needs more of them. Great stuff, Labour!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1JoPjjT4dM/
Wonder if it will make TVNZ news tonight? Or just the coalitions “ where’s the money coming from “ spiel ?
He truly is a most disingenuous and frankly lying minister and it is apparent why he is the National Party campaign manager because lying and bs is all that they are offering apart from their woeful record in govt. Watt, Goldsmith, Willis, Luxton, Upston, Standford et al they are all of the same ilk uncaring and self focussed. Three years is that many too long let's please be rid.
Friend of mine recently told me that he was rushed to Middlemore Hospital with acute appendicitis. Waited 9 hours until surgery. Luckily his appendix didn’t burst.
Hospitals all over the motu are really struggling. And what’s more I think Simeon Brown is an absolute coward and liar to boot v
I understood code brown was a God botherer. Doesn't say much for his religion/sect that condones the outright deceit he spews forth.
Is.
Then it would read ' understand code brown is. I wrote 'understood code brown was'.
Don't know who named him 'code brown' but it rolls off the tongue quite nicely, and, 'skidmark brown' was already taken by an ex mayor from the far North.
I would venture Simeon is more a leech than a worm, sucking every last drop of blood out of Public Health and giving it to his mates in the Private system. The Public Health system is in severe crisis as you have written about extensively Nick and thanks for your efforts. What we never seem to hear about, which is my particular hobby horse, is Wait Lists. With the Health system under so much pressure right now, I can well imagine all those Wait Lists just getting bigger and longer. I know that the Wait List for Echocardiograms which is the Best determinant of heart issues was over 15,000 in 2025 with an over 10 month wait in some Health districts. Heaven knows what it is now, I suspect it won't not less. We just don't hear about Wait Lists...Curiously?? Maybe Simeon will tell me we don't have Wait Lists anymore and that everything is just fine a dandy. He may well have magicked them away, by kicking people off and making their doctors reapply, like Tony Ryall did in, ahem, Sir John Keys govt.
According to Dr Google, about 28,000 to 29,000 people are waiting for an echocardiogram. Recent reports suggest a postcode lottery, with progress in some areas, but many report waits of up to a year. It sounds like Waikato and Wellington are particularly bad.
Bloody hell, it's pretty much doubled in a year???? That is so saddening, as there will be hundreds if not thousands dying, when in many cases had they had an Echo a diagnosis may well have led to medication that would have saved their lives.
Many don’t even make it to waitlists as the GP referral is declined. If one isn't on the list in the first place, then it doesn't affect Simeon Brown's very narrow sit of goals and statistics, and the statistics can be gamed. Brown knows this, but...
Correct - and often the reason for decline is due to 'resourcing issues' rather than clinical.
Or you don't find out until it is too late.
Sadly, I know this only to well and it is not only GP referrals. Without going into all the details my wife would still be here if she wasn't declined an Echocardiogram after 2 referrals, one from her GP and one from a hospital department.
I am so sorry to hear this. It is so wrong!
But when we have a government that borrows to give tax cuts to freaking landlords instead of funding a functional health service, we have to ask “why are people voting for that mob”?
Thank you Frances. It is wrong and I struggle that things could have been different. If only. It may sound like a strange perspective but when I'm feeling low I turn my mind to what is happening in Gaza, and know that is suffering beyond anything I might have.
People may well vote that Mob back into power. That possibility makes me very concerned about what kind of country we have become. The Govt. has done so much damage in so many areas, if they get back in everything we cherish will soon be gone. Too many are blinded by Me rather than We.
I so hope we can oust these Ghouls out come November.
So sorry to hear that Brian. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Those experiences, when shared, can be powerful in getting change for better. But, it shouldn't take the unnecessary passing of a loved one to get much needed improvement and better resourcing in our health system.
Thank you Paul. It isn't easy. Not a day goes by when it doesn't f..k with my head. I doubt Simeon would care frankly. For a supposed Christian, and I know some good ones, he breaks the glass ceiling for arseholes. Probably best I never encounter him as I would probably lose my sh.t in an unpleasant and uncharacteristic non violent manner. On the bright side I can only hope and live for a change of government. A caring and compassionate one, that we once had not that very long ago. I'm currently reading Jacinda's book and it brings back so many memories of what we once had and have now sadly lost.
Not only wait lists, they can be manipulated. What I would ask for is unmet need, ie how many people need surgery and can't even get on a list.
No problem with you writing about health, Nick. Health is closely connected to so many other aspects of life we care about.
As I can’t afford a The Post subscription, I didn’t know ‘Doctoring’ Simeon Brown was ducking the ASMS conference on Thursday, or that National won’t even have a representative on the political panel. Perhaps he is grooming himself for higher office by following Luxon and Upston’s lead and avoiding those uncomfortable situations where open mockery, however richly deserved, might prick an inflated ego.
So that alone made today’s post worth its weight in gold. The cartoons were very well done too.
If you do want to hear from a National Party spokesperson on health, tomorrow, to mark the start of World Alzheimer’s Month, Alzheimers NZ is hosting an online political panel with representatives from five parties. National’s representative is Sam Uffindell, chair of the Health Committee, rather than merely a bed-leg holder propping up ever-increasing health needs.
As I write this, registrations are still open. I’ve also been told that, if time allows, questions submitted by the audience through Zoom may be put to the panel.
Given how little successive governments have provided in new funding for dementia support and services, there could be some interesting questions. Budget 2022 provided just $12 million over four years for seven regional pilots and a governance structure arising from the Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan 2020–2025. Budgets 2024, 2025 and 2026 have provided no comparable new dementia-specific funding.
Unsurprisingly, there are some deeply disappointed and disillusioned people across the dementia community and sector, if not some who are now downright angry.
So, it might interest you, or other readers.
Details and registration are here:
https://alzheimers.org.nz/explore/events/from-growing-numbers-to-growing-solutions-whats-your-plan-to-deal-with-dementia-in-nz/
This govt has sure honed its skills on ways to avoid public input and criticism.
Thanks Nick for keeping us up with the ‘play’.
Poison dwarf of a man. Those Drs have way more experience than he has .
On Health care, there is also the 2000 or so low paid caregivers in Auckland waiting to hear if they have a job as the competitive tendering process knocks out their employers as providers. We have a looming crisis in home care as older and/or disabled people rely on the services to be able to stay in their own homes. The caregivers have already been robbed of pay equity. Now it could be their jobs too.
It continues to flabbergasted me that National are doing as well as they are in the polls. Why isnt Labour galloping ahead and who on earth are these people who do vote for the Nats? I know that Labour has been subdued with their communications but really?
The subdue may come from the media? I get a lot of posts from Labour.
Yes Leonie. They are putting screeds of information out there but most of it is being ignored by the MSM. There seems to be a quiet right-wing revolution occurring inside media circles and I don't believe its accidental.
It is a bit of a concern
Brown lacks humanity the deputy minister Seymour is a smirking assassin! What a great pair to destroy the NZ public health system
As mentioned previously take the' E out of Simeon ' and it's plain old Simon.., pseudo Christian ,liar, liar your undies are on fire.
Earlier this year I had seizure and was hospitalized for 10 weeks at NorthShore Hospital ( with 124% occupancy...single file in the corridor if you don't mind thanks very much.
The staff were fantastic, nurses truly are special bunch... kindness personified.
When it was coming time for me to be released, something bad happened.
I tried doing my older comedy routines...BUT
My attempts to combine nitrous oxide and Oxo Beef Cubes made me a laughing stock.
He isn't attending the Senior Medical Officer conference because they will hold him to account for his ineptitude.
As an RN in election year we are told to be apolitical, fuck them. I will tell it as I see it. Also making sure to check if people are enrolled to vote.
Simeon just part of a clown show except it's not funny. Down here north of Tauranga their building a private hospital at Te Puna up the road about 30 minutes is Omokoroa heaving at the seams with houses & new subdivisions which Labour had plans for a highschool the land was bought & immediately Nats got in stopped it. It wouldn't be that far in the future that Omokoroa could easily service a hospital (not a private one) as the whole area between Tauranga & Katikati is quite a big population but I guarantee nobody will think that far ahead.
It's shameful and disgraceful behaviour from an ex bank clerk turned Minister of Health who fails to listen to advice from medical experts. When he doesn't want to hear the uncomfortable truth about the terrible state of our public health system, he then resorts to using tactics such as a pre-recorded message instead of attending the ASMS conference and facing up to the inevitable questions. Talk about having an ostrich mentality and burying your head in the sand.
It is more important than ever that the voters of New Zealand ensure that this madness doesn't continue otherwise we can expect an American style private health system to gain a real foothold in this country.
My poor neighbour is in agony with hips that are had it she's been waiting for more than 4 years it's not fair.
Simeone Brown is a wilful liar! There is nothing he has said or done that stands up with even the most rudimentary scrutiny. For this man like, Bill Birch before him, he will stand in front of a live TV camera and lie from start to finish. If I were generous I might say he massages the truth. But that would be a lie of itself. Simeon Brown knows he has underfunded heathcare NZ, knows he has put a bar on all new appointments across the motu, and knows his only weapon is that of diversion and distraction. His pathetic "good morning to everyone but Chris Hipkins" was so banal and infantile it uterly beggared belief.
I feel your worm analogy is misplaced. Worms are environmentally useful. Minister Brown is a deceitful, lying and devious little shit. My wife just spent 24 hours on Friday/Saturday in North Shore Hospital The nurses and doctors were lovely but so so stretched and under-resourced. So many simple organisational things could be implemented to ease patients stress but there is a leadership vacuum. Her descriptor of her Friday night on the ward "hellhole" with inadequate resources, rude/frustrated/lonely patients with no support. So sad that we are in this state. I recall Dr Jonathan Coleman who was Health Minister in 2015-17 treating staff like Brown does. Compassionless right wingers.
This last weekend someone I know spent 16 hours in ED in great pain. Given morphine and when discharged with no possible or likely diagnosis, was given a referral to go and book his own ultrasound. Just another ED too overwhelmed.