Report On NZ Health System Ideological Bonkers

“Report On NZ Health System Ideological Bonkers” [Embargoed Until 5pm]

“The OECD report on the New Zealand health system is ideological bonkers and should be binned by the government,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“The report advocates running the health system as if it was a commercial business forgetting that this was tried and failed in the 1990s. It is an attempt to return to an unsuccessful past. New Zealand is far too small a country to have a health system based on competing units. We need collaboration and integration of services, not wasting time, effort and resources on competing against each other. The country with the most business-like health system is the United States and it is also arguably the poorest performer and most inefficient and wasteful.”

“The proposal to break up national collective agreements is bizarre and makes no practical sense. We can only resolve our health workforce problems and crises by taking a nationally coordinated approach. But the ideologues behind the report simplistically propose fragmentation. They demonstrate an appalling ignorance of the importance of strategic health workforce development.”

“The authors also make misleading claims about hospital efficiency and productivity. They fail to understand the importance of investing in the health workforce which is the key generator of quality and effectiveness.”

“The OECD is an important international body. It should think long and hard before it again delegates the writing of reports on health systems to one-eyed ideologues lacking practical experience in what works and what doesn’t” concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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