Yes - why has TOP started receiving so much publicity, after being moribund for two years? Is it paranoia or cynicism which makes me think that they are being positioned as a spoiler, to mop up antigovernment votes?
In one of my many jobs I worked as a Kidney Dialysis Technician at Auckland Hospital. There were regulars, and my job was to help hook them up to the dialysis machine, take them off after dialysis had finished, make sure everything was operating properly through the shift and then clean the machines after for the next intake. I have never heard of rationing dialysis. People should have a look what happens in between one dialysis and the next. Simeon's "expectations" are just bullshit of course. Just a boy giving out instructions like a little dictator to cover his hopeless ass. On TOP ; can I get this off my chest. They are polling around 2%. One poll had them at 4% I think. They are blancmange and Peter Dunne reinvented. I know they make nice soothing noises, but I have never heard of a Party Leader who got the job by applying for it! Not among TOP members, but open, recruitment process. FFS. Let's just have recruitment agencies pick all our MPs! My other concern and I'm careful what I say here, is that there is a disgraced Labour Minister as their CEO, who I'm told will be in any negotiations for a coalition. This particular minister held the important portfolio for workers' rights. He let every worker in NZ down with his dalliances and was rightly sacked by Jacinda. Yet, not, a single, workers rights policy from TOP so far.
I completely agree on TOP. The Roy Morgan poll is always bogus, and they haven't come close in any other poll. They are United re-invented and almost certainly a wasted vote that might end up siding with National on the off chance they get elected.
Mainstream media have been giving them much airtime and what appears to be a push over the past week or so - unfortunately that gives many the impression that they should be taken seriously.
Three decades since I have had to support a dialysis patient, their transplant still going strong, but I recall by the time you needed it you really needed it. The thought of rationing it is appalling.
Sheesh, Nick! When I saw the headline, I thought YOU were in trouble. Here in Waikato, my not yet two-year-old moko had his referral to the dermatologist rejected. If you saw the photos, you would be horrified. The only dermatologist in the region has been at capacity for ages, so his GP had to play the game and sent the wee lad to hospital. Can't fault the staff and he is now in the system getting all the right follow up. Meanwhile, his Dad has been waiting months for the next step for his spinal surgery. On and on and on it goes.
Well, I booked a doctor's appointment last week (3 March) ...29 April (only one slot) was the first available until into May ... I remember when doctors made house calls. All the knowledge and technology we have now to keep us healthy, and yet no service is available to apply it.
Three weeks seems to be the minimum these days. If you’re in dire need of attention you better have $100 bucks to spare to go to an urgent care clinic, most of these close at 8pm or earlier, so A&E at hospital is the last resort. If you’re in a rural area the options are usually limited to a long drive to the nearest hospital. This is a very long way from the NZ of my youth where you could always see a doctor, and if you were really unwell, a doctor would come to you. How is it that we have arrived at this pitiful state?
This makes me so sad. A healthy country thrives. Now for a rant, I was on a 38 week waiting list for surgery which I finally had after 45 weeks and I had to agitate and get moved to a semi-urgent list (as over the last three months of waiting things definitely deteriorated). A semi-urgent list is 20 weeks long.
Now for something worse, my daughter has endometriosis. It's a 10 month wait to get her first appointment and then another 10 months to have various tests before you even get to surgery. That's over 2 years of struggling with pain and at the same time hold down a job and run a family.
Then we have the USA. My son and daughter-in-law have just had their second baby. The cost for that was $3,000 (not everything is covered by health insurance) and there were complications so he's expecting a bill of around $10,000 and that is US$
How many portfolios does a coalition minister have to fail at all levels to be sacked? Simeon is the best (or worst, depending on your opinion), at this by miles. Minister of energy, local government, transport ,all failed. Now he’s working, ( I’m joking) on ruining the nation’s health, state owned enterprises and Auckland. He “assumed” these offices over the last couple of years, which I imagine means that the public can also “assume”, that he actually has to do something useful with them. I don’t see any evidence to that effect since he took these over.
A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make an appointment with my GP for something that was ailing me a bit. I was given the date of March 24th. I decided to go to the local clinic, which ended up with an urgent CT scan, after being checked out by some very good doctors. All worked out well, but could have been somewhat different if I’d left it. It cost $100, which was money well spent, but there are still way too many people who don’t have the means to do that. That is absolutely unacceptable in a country where the government, who are responsible for all things for all it’s citizens, for the sake of profit from ill health, put the dollar before the lives of people. Free healthcare for all should be a priority above all else.
Sadly, Simeon is one of many in government who value the money above the wellbeing of the nation.
Until misfortune comes to the door of the incumbents, they won’t give a damn. (Even then, I wouldn’t want to be a relative of BVV). If Luxo believes he’s the best man for the PM role, it just proves the coalition truly are the worst
(alleged)government in the history of AotearoaNZ. They have to go….
You took my words Jeremy. Simeon Brown should not be anywhere near any portfolio as he has proven to be an utter failure at all of those he has been allocated. Completely incompetent, completely lacking in empathy and also rather selective with the truth.
Apart from my community mental health experience and qualifications, and postgrad social work…I have a particular set of skills I can offer to Simeon Brown. I play tennis. Competitively and well.
I’m not a violent person. But Simeon needs a game of tennis with me. He may not be able to attend meetings or church services until he recovers.
I promise I’d sing a nice song before the aiming; I’d say a karakia with the hope that my opponent on the other side of the net would be able to walk again (after being freed up of his current duties on 7 November 2026).
After the match (which likely would need to be finished early due to injury), I’d shout him a coffee or a beer as a ‘pick-me-up’ of sorts.
One small condition I’d place on offering a drink would be to insist on him signing a disclosure blowing the whistle on all he knew of the shenanigans purporting to be health governance by himself and Levy.
I love the imagination. I’d like to work on this project to bring it to reality.
Very well said Nick. It’s a really simple choice now. Thankyou for the stats and the alarming info about Covid. This government is literally dismantling everything that made NZ a great place to live. Ordinary people are just completely stuffed now.
The waitlist for Echocardiograms ( for heart issues ) in March 2025 was over 15,000. A google search also tells me that it could also be 28,000. The wife of some poor bastard I know too well, was declined an echo in late 2024, after 2 referrals, one by her doctor and another by a hospital department. She finally got one in hospital in February 2025, two days before she passed away of what could have been identified by echo and treated with antibiotics back in late 24. If anyone can give that guy a good reason to not wish to wrap his fingers around the scrawny neck of Simeon Brown I know he would love to hear about it.
I can’t think of one Brian. That is bloody disgraceful treatment, or lack thereof, in anyone’s world. Sadly, I suspect the pointless, avoidable loss of your wife won’t be the last for some time. I feel very sorry for you, your loss, those yet to come for others for no good reason, and the fact your comment needed to be made. Simeon has a lot to answer for, as do the rest of this farcical excuse for a government.
Thanks Jeremy. It has been very tough. As you say there will be others, many others I suspect, with such long wait lists across so many health disciplines and we don't get to hear about them, and their loved ones just suffer quietly coz this lot are not listening. It is the same with Covid. 19 deaths this last week and not a fucking peep. Geez I hope enough people wake up and vote this lot of vampires out.
We had a friend around for dinner last night with digestion/bowel problems, and previous history or polyps. Has asked repeatedly for referral for a colonoscopy and been told she cannot be referred as the practitioner is not allowed to do so. FFS.
We have moved markedly from preventative care to curative if possible - if we haven’t left it too late for people. And often we have.
The right wing needs to get out of our way in every sphere. Let’s tax them hard to make up for their blocking us and funding this rat shit CoC.
Pauline, I venture to suggest that Lester Levy and Roger Jarrald are enjoying huge money for the hatchet job they’re doing on Health NZ for Simeon Brown, Nicola Willis and this ‘government’.
Who knows what Levy is receiving and how much of it he’s actually earned.
Jarrald was on approx 320K p.a. as a deputy commissioner. His role ended in July 2025. As a Health NZ board member, he should now be receiving something of the order of 40K. p.a. Has anyone bothered to check if his remuneration has been adjusted yet…8 months later?!?!? Or is this another private arrangement between the boys who won’t want it scrutinised?
Chief Financial Officer Bevan McKenzie was appointed without being a chartered accountant yet the going rate for him was apparently in the order of 740k p.a. Of course, the fact that he is not a chartered accountant allows him and Health NZ to claim plausible deniability (or whatever other slippery spin they wish to use) in the event that financials and accounts are in a mess.
That seems a rather large amount of money for a half-arsed job.
But Levy still sits there hoping we all pray for him (his words) and treat one another “with the milk of human kindness”. Asking us to pretend that this debacle is not occurring under his watch!!!
The arrogance is astounding.
And Simeon Brown. Well that’s a whole other 10 page dossier detailing his debacles…it’ll wait.
In the meantime, I invite you and other readers to visit the Annual Health Review debate last year where Ayesha Verrall wiped the floor with Simeon Brown and he tried to pull his bottom lip off the ground.
I'm not in the least bit surprised Brian there's too much of this top heavy beauocracy in this country doing buggar all & getting paid eye watering money.
I was surprised that an 1130pm visit to Shorecare was only 41$ but my 9am GP follow up was $69 2 days later. Fortunately A&E dic called it correctly...gout. Free blood test to confirm, free medication to treat. So some parts if the system for small things are still working.
I had a small stroke last Saturday, right leg and arm....did not know that a new drug based on a snake venom can now dissolve clots before prolonged damage to nerves happens, but you MUST ring an ambulance straight away. I didn't, so I now need a cane Must say the staff at Greymouth Hospital were amazingly dedicated...
Yes - why has TOP started receiving so much publicity, after being moribund for two years? Is it paranoia or cynicism which makes me think that they are being positioned as a spoiler, to mop up antigovernment votes?
Iain Lees-Galloway’s doing?
They do have a new leader who's trying to generate some momentum but... yeah
In one of my many jobs I worked as a Kidney Dialysis Technician at Auckland Hospital. There were regulars, and my job was to help hook them up to the dialysis machine, take them off after dialysis had finished, make sure everything was operating properly through the shift and then clean the machines after for the next intake. I have never heard of rationing dialysis. People should have a look what happens in between one dialysis and the next. Simeon's "expectations" are just bullshit of course. Just a boy giving out instructions like a little dictator to cover his hopeless ass. On TOP ; can I get this off my chest. They are polling around 2%. One poll had them at 4% I think. They are blancmange and Peter Dunne reinvented. I know they make nice soothing noises, but I have never heard of a Party Leader who got the job by applying for it! Not among TOP members, but open, recruitment process. FFS. Let's just have recruitment agencies pick all our MPs! My other concern and I'm careful what I say here, is that there is a disgraced Labour Minister as their CEO, who I'm told will be in any negotiations for a coalition. This particular minister held the important portfolio for workers' rights. He let every worker in NZ down with his dalliances and was rightly sacked by Jacinda. Yet, not, a single, workers rights policy from TOP so far.
I completely agree on TOP. The Roy Morgan poll is always bogus, and they haven't come close in any other poll. They are United re-invented and almost certainly a wasted vote that might end up siding with National on the off chance they get elected.
Mainstream media have been giving them much airtime and what appears to be a push over the past week or so - unfortunately that gives many the impression that they should be taken seriously.
Nooooo! I mean, yes, they are a serious threat. However, they are not out to serve the people of Aotearoa.
Three decades since I have had to support a dialysis patient, their transplant still going strong, but I recall by the time you needed it you really needed it. The thought of rationing it is appalling.
Sheesh, Nick! When I saw the headline, I thought YOU were in trouble. Here in Waikato, my not yet two-year-old moko had his referral to the dermatologist rejected. If you saw the photos, you would be horrified. The only dermatologist in the region has been at capacity for ages, so his GP had to play the game and sent the wee lad to hospital. Can't fault the staff and he is now in the system getting all the right follow up. Meanwhile, his Dad has been waiting months for the next step for his spinal surgery. On and on and on it goes.
All the very Best to yr whanau.
The little chap & his dad.
I sort of can relate, waiting for hip op, near 4 years, now left hip is compromised. I can not remember what it feels like to be pain free.
It's all on us who love & live in Aotearoa to Vote ❤️ & 💚 .
Well, I booked a doctor's appointment last week (3 March) ...29 April (only one slot) was the first available until into May ... I remember when doctors made house calls. All the knowledge and technology we have now to keep us healthy, and yet no service is available to apply it.
Three weeks seems to be the minimum these days. If you’re in dire need of attention you better have $100 bucks to spare to go to an urgent care clinic, most of these close at 8pm or earlier, so A&E at hospital is the last resort. If you’re in a rural area the options are usually limited to a long drive to the nearest hospital. This is a very long way from the NZ of my youth where you could always see a doctor, and if you were really unwell, a doctor would come to you. How is it that we have arrived at this pitiful state?
Electing National, basically. They've been systematically destroying the health system since 1990.
Same long wait time here in Kapiti. And the same goes for dental work - I've broken a tooth and can't get in to my dentist for 3 weeks.
One commentator noted that the $Billions given to Israel by the U$ means Israel can provide free health care - ironic, or really sick?
Really sick.
Really sick and disgusting.
Both Keith
This makes me so sad. A healthy country thrives. Now for a rant, I was on a 38 week waiting list for surgery which I finally had after 45 weeks and I had to agitate and get moved to a semi-urgent list (as over the last three months of waiting things definitely deteriorated). A semi-urgent list is 20 weeks long.
Now for something worse, my daughter has endometriosis. It's a 10 month wait to get her first appointment and then another 10 months to have various tests before you even get to surgery. That's over 2 years of struggling with pain and at the same time hold down a job and run a family.
Then we have the USA. My son and daughter-in-law have just had their second baby. The cost for that was $3,000 (not everything is covered by health insurance) and there were complications so he's expecting a bill of around $10,000 and that is US$
How many portfolios does a coalition minister have to fail at all levels to be sacked? Simeon is the best (or worst, depending on your opinion), at this by miles. Minister of energy, local government, transport ,all failed. Now he’s working, ( I’m joking) on ruining the nation’s health, state owned enterprises and Auckland. He “assumed” these offices over the last couple of years, which I imagine means that the public can also “assume”, that he actually has to do something useful with them. I don’t see any evidence to that effect since he took these over.
A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make an appointment with my GP for something that was ailing me a bit. I was given the date of March 24th. I decided to go to the local clinic, which ended up with an urgent CT scan, after being checked out by some very good doctors. All worked out well, but could have been somewhat different if I’d left it. It cost $100, which was money well spent, but there are still way too many people who don’t have the means to do that. That is absolutely unacceptable in a country where the government, who are responsible for all things for all it’s citizens, for the sake of profit from ill health, put the dollar before the lives of people. Free healthcare for all should be a priority above all else.
Sadly, Simeon is one of many in government who value the money above the wellbeing of the nation.
Until misfortune comes to the door of the incumbents, they won’t give a damn. (Even then, I wouldn’t want to be a relative of BVV). If Luxo believes he’s the best man for the PM role, it just proves the coalition truly are the worst
(alleged)government in the history of AotearoaNZ. They have to go….
You took my words Jeremy. Simeon Brown should not be anywhere near any portfolio as he has proven to be an utter failure at all of those he has been allocated. Completely incompetent, completely lacking in empathy and also rather selective with the truth.
As former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating once said about an opponent, one of my all time favourite quotes, “He’s all tip, no iceberg”
Apart from my community mental health experience and qualifications, and postgrad social work…I have a particular set of skills I can offer to Simeon Brown. I play tennis. Competitively and well.
I’m not a violent person. But Simeon needs a game of tennis with me. He may not be able to attend meetings or church services until he recovers.
I don’t think you’re allowed to throw your racket at anyone, Brian. A pity, but I think it’s true🤔
That’s true Jeremy but there’s a delicious album written some decades ago by Elvis Costello titled “My Aim is True”.
I’m sure you get my gist 🌞
I promise I’d sing a nice song before the aiming; I’d say a karakia with the hope that my opponent on the other side of the net would be able to walk again (after being freed up of his current duties on 7 November 2026).
After the match (which likely would need to be finished early due to injury), I’d shout him a coffee or a beer as a ‘pick-me-up’ of sorts.
One small condition I’d place on offering a drink would be to insist on him signing a disclosure blowing the whistle on all he knew of the shenanigans purporting to be health governance by himself and Levy.
I love the imagination. I’d like to work on this project to bring it to reality.
😂😂
Very well said Nick. It’s a really simple choice now. Thankyou for the stats and the alarming info about Covid. This government is literally dismantling everything that made NZ a great place to live. Ordinary people are just completely stuffed now.
The waitlist for Echocardiograms ( for heart issues ) in March 2025 was over 15,000. A google search also tells me that it could also be 28,000. The wife of some poor bastard I know too well, was declined an echo in late 2024, after 2 referrals, one by her doctor and another by a hospital department. She finally got one in hospital in February 2025, two days before she passed away of what could have been identified by echo and treated with antibiotics back in late 24. If anyone can give that guy a good reason to not wish to wrap his fingers around the scrawny neck of Simeon Brown I know he would love to hear about it.
I can’t think of one Brian. That is bloody disgraceful treatment, or lack thereof, in anyone’s world. Sadly, I suspect the pointless, avoidable loss of your wife won’t be the last for some time. I feel very sorry for you, your loss, those yet to come for others for no good reason, and the fact your comment needed to be made. Simeon has a lot to answer for, as do the rest of this farcical excuse for a government.
Thanks Jeremy. It has been very tough. As you say there will be others, many others I suspect, with such long wait lists across so many health disciplines and we don't get to hear about them, and their loved ones just suffer quietly coz this lot are not listening. It is the same with Covid. 19 deaths this last week and not a fucking peep. Geez I hope enough people wake up and vote this lot of vampires out.
Retired doctor here. It's just heartbreaking.
We had a friend around for dinner last night with digestion/bowel problems, and previous history or polyps. Has asked repeatedly for referral for a colonoscopy and been told she cannot be referred as the practitioner is not allowed to do so. FFS.
We have moved markedly from preventative care to curative if possible - if we haven’t left it too late for people. And often we have.
The right wing needs to get out of our way in every sphere. Let’s tax them hard to make up for their blocking us and funding this rat shit CoC.
I'd love to know what the people in Health NZ are paid they seem either incompetent or their hands are tied.
Pauline, I venture to suggest that Lester Levy and Roger Jarrald are enjoying huge money for the hatchet job they’re doing on Health NZ for Simeon Brown, Nicola Willis and this ‘government’.
Who knows what Levy is receiving and how much of it he’s actually earned.
Jarrald was on approx 320K p.a. as a deputy commissioner. His role ended in July 2025. As a Health NZ board member, he should now be receiving something of the order of 40K. p.a. Has anyone bothered to check if his remuneration has been adjusted yet…8 months later?!?!? Or is this another private arrangement between the boys who won’t want it scrutinised?
Chief Financial Officer Bevan McKenzie was appointed without being a chartered accountant yet the going rate for him was apparently in the order of 740k p.a. Of course, the fact that he is not a chartered accountant allows him and Health NZ to claim plausible deniability (or whatever other slippery spin they wish to use) in the event that financials and accounts are in a mess.
That seems a rather large amount of money for a half-arsed job.
But Levy still sits there hoping we all pray for him (his words) and treat one another “with the milk of human kindness”. Asking us to pretend that this debacle is not occurring under his watch!!!
The arrogance is astounding.
And Simeon Brown. Well that’s a whole other 10 page dossier detailing his debacles…it’ll wait.
In the meantime, I invite you and other readers to visit the Annual Health Review debate last year where Ayesha Verrall wiped the floor with Simeon Brown and he tried to pull his bottom lip off the ground.
(A) YouTube
https://youtu.be/2fKUr_gb7Jg
(B) RNZ
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557809/the-house-verrall-and-brown-go-tit-for-tat-in-health-annual-review-debate
(C) Annual Health Review Debate
https://hansard.parliament.nz/hansard-transcript/2025-04-08/annual-review-debate-transport?sId=24ee351c35194997a1b512788ea21a8c
I'm not in the least bit surprised Brian there's too much of this top heavy beauocracy in this country doing buggar all & getting paid eye watering money.
It’s not accountability in action…it’s pure greed, pretense and dishonesty.
What a way to end their career! I wouldn’t put them in the driver’s seat of my bus. I care too much about the safety and wellbeing of my passengers.
And Sir Brian Roche watches on as Public Service Commissioner turning a blind eye to it.
Can some remind me why he is there? This naive bus driver in Australia is out of his depth on such bureaucratic and cosy relational matters.
It’s worth noting that 500.000 American go bankrupt each year over Health costs.
It seems Australia & Canada are not good role models re Health; I am wondering how the Nordic countries manage their health care budget.
Worth a visit.
I was surprised that an 1130pm visit to Shorecare was only 41$ but my 9am GP follow up was $69 2 days later. Fortunately A&E dic called it correctly...gout. Free blood test to confirm, free medication to treat. So some parts if the system for small things are still working.
TOP are dangerous, I think. They are NZFirst's natural allies. I hope they split the discontent vote and don't take from labour or Green.
I had a small stroke last Saturday, right leg and arm....did not know that a new drug based on a snake venom can now dissolve clots before prolonged damage to nerves happens, but you MUST ring an ambulance straight away. I didn't, so I now need a cane Must say the staff at Greymouth Hospital were amazingly dedicated...