■ Grey Power’s Victor Luca reflects on healthcare pressures and growing waiting lists

Back in the 1940s the people from the volcanic island of Stromboli from where my parents originated used to say that “Old Age is Horrible’. They said that because there wasn’t a lot of healthcare support for old people on a volcanic island with a population

under 4000 located about 100 kilometres from the Sicilian mainland, writes Whakatāne Grey Power president Victor Luca.

All that existed was a local doctor and friends and family. Back then however, societies tended to be smaller and people were better connected to one another.

Modern healthcare systems are complex and New Zealand’s is widely acknowledged to be in crisis.

I would argue that our healthcare system is two-tiered and extremely inequitable.

Waiting lists for elective surgeries have blown out in recent years and the trajectory is not good.

The graph pictured shows how bad the waiting times have become for First Specialist Appointments (FSA) and eventual treatment.

Much of the cause for the blowout in waiting times is due to a health workforce crisis, which is likely to get worse before it gets better, unless more health professional can be attracted to our shores.

My observations suggest that the Trump regime and the expanding war that the Americans have initiated is bringing more American doctors our way.The workforce crisis we are experiencing is completely predictable given that governments have neglected their duty of care to create human capital, ie, they haven’t trained enough doctors and nurses.

Over the past decades, we have converted education from an investment in human capital into a business venture.

The Government seems hell-bent on increasing the privatisation of healthcare, which is likely to worsen the crisis. They are doing this in misguided belief that private is better than public.

I often cite the US system as an argument for why this view is sheer nonsense.

The US system costs more than twice ours per person and results in worse average outcomes.

Why on earth would we take that path?

Our healthcare system comprises so-called Primary Healthcare Services (PHS) such GP services, district nurses and then a patchwork of NGO and voluntary providers and community trusts, without which, I am convinced, the system would fall apart.

Hospice is a good example of a PHS. In addition to PHS, a modern healthcare system comprises at least 42 specialist services (cardiology, pathology, radiology etc) to which your GP refers you if they deem it necessary.

Our next Grey Power general meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 18, at our usual venue, the Knox Presbyterian Church hall on Domain Road, starting at 10am.

This month’s speaker will be Donna Hill, who is a registered nurse and a member of the Awhina Health Care service.

Awhina offers services such as personal and dementia care, medication and wellness checks, respite and companionship, meals and household help.

Donna will provide more detail on what Awhina does. As always, all members of the public are welcome.