US Doctors rejecting Bureaucracy

Back when I started work, I learned a valuable lesson from my boss. My boss ran his department lean. He focused on the key deliverables, had minimal management, and kept a tight eye on costs. From that I learned one thing: if you keep your overhead costs low, you’ve already won much of the battle.…

Bogus Death Statistics Even More Bogus Than She Realises

Michelle Malkin rebuts a rather silly study on the US health system. So, how did these political doctors come up with the 44,000 figure? They used data from a health survey conducted between 1988 and 1994. The questionnaires asked a sample of 9,000 participants if they were insured and how they rated their own health.…

US Health-care through the eyes of a former NZ health correspondent

In the “credit where it’s due” file, National Radio had a very good interview on Saturday morning on the subject of the US healthcare system, and the Obama proposals. He exploded a few myths held by people here (no one is turned down for care in the US), explained how the insurance system works, and…

A lot more to weight that “meats” the eye

Now, this is interesting. Yet the science of weight gain is less straightforward than the headlines sometimes suggest. Why, for example, do some people seem to eat what they like and not put on weight, while others limit their diet yet struggle to shed their bulk? In 1967, a medical researcher, Ethan Sims, carried out…

Another Wonderful Day in our Public Health System

Why would anyone want a private health system? Oh, that’s right – private hospitals don’t turn you away because you’re “not sick enough“. Otago District Health Board group manager Dr Colleen Coop said the hospital had finite resources and funding, and the simple reality was staff were not able to treat all patients who would…

Call for men to treat their health more like their car

That’s the headline from the ODT. I assume they don’t intend to me to only wash every month! There’s a good point though: “Most men take their car in for an annual service, but they don’t extend that commonsense to their own bodies,” he said. “It’s a very small investment to make in their health…

Extra Tax Will Fix the Health System

It’s been said before, Labour only kept half of their promoise to increase tax to fix the health system. In fact, they didn’t even do that – they promised to tax the rich only. Anyway, the lastest example is jaw dropping. The West Coast District Health Board is investigating why a woman who was 34…

The Muliaga Tragedy

I’m also following the inquest into the death of Folole Muliaga. Today the contractor spoke. It’s a telling point that there are so many lawyers involved. The more I listen, the more I wonder at all the things people say should have been done, and have been done, but I have yet to hear anything…

A Very Happy Day

Yesterday, Asher MacDonald was baptised. Maybe one day I will have more to say, but for now I’ll just quote Aria’s blog. Today we baptised our son and Aria’s brother at church. Of course there were lots of tears, mainly from me and Hamish but lots of misty eyes in the congregation. We remembered Aria’s…

We can learn from America

NRT is one crazy dude. One of the goals of the National Party in the 90’s was to move New Zealand towards a more American style of healthcare, cutting public provision and running down the public health system in an effort to force people to go private or get health insurance. It’s a goal they…