Improvements to health system a hot topic for Ōtaki candidates

How to improve New Zealand’s health system proved to be the hottest topic at an Ōtaki candidates meeting.

About 90 people, including Labour MP Andrew Little, were at the Levin Cosmopolitan Club on Friday afternoon for a spirited Ōtaki candidates meeting organised by Horowhenua Grey Power.

Sean Rush of the Act Party, Ali Muhammad of the Greens, Terisa Ngobi from Labour, National’s Tim Costley and Bryan Ten Have of New Zealand Loyal attended.

Of all the topics covered, health was one of the biggest focuses for the candidates and the crowd.

Ngobi said Labour had invested in housing and health more than any other government, but still had more to do.

One woman said Palmerston North Hospital, the nearest hospital to Levin, could not cope with the number of people going and there was no 24-hour care in Levin, so wanted to know if Labour was working on that.

Ngobi said the overhaul of the health system and creating the new national health service Te Whatu Ora was supposed to remove barriers.

She said there health professionals in Levin, but surgeries would have to be in Palmerston North, but Labour was putting more resources in. She said Horowhenua shared four ambulances with Manawatū.

Costley said there had not been any improvements in health since the introduction of Te Whatu Ora and his party wanted to do better with the health system. He asked the crowd about their experiences and a couple of people said they were happy with the health system.

“I’m stoked the Labour Party members loved it, but that’s not what I hear.”

He said the health system was not going well and money needed to be put into more doctors and nurses instead of things such as communications staff.

When Labour came to power six years ago, 74 people in Horowhenua had to wait months for surgery at Palmerston North Hospital; now it was 750, he said.

National wanted to offer incentives to nurses to stay in New Zealand instead of going to Australia, paying some of their student loan under a bonding scheme requiring them to work in New Zealand for five years.

While they were bonded they could work in any health service across New Zealand, including at ones in Levin, he said.

While he was questioned by Ngobi over National’s proposed cuts to public services, Costley said National didn’t plan to cut health or education services.

He said extra bureaucrats were costing the country too much, with one example a huge number of communications staff at Waka Kotahi advertising the new Ōtaki to North of Levin highway.

“We don’t need to advertise the road – we need to build it.”

Ten Have said he had experienced how slow the health system worked and he wanted health staff who had been forced to leave their job as a result of Covid-19 vaccination mandates to be allowed back to work.

Muhammad said the Greens wanted to pay people in the health sector more and would be able to do so if they introduced their proposed wealth tax.

Rush, who had to leave the meeting early and wasn’t available for all the questions, said there were long-term problems with health, too much red tape and New Zealand needed better infrastructure.