Collins lashes overhaul
Opposition leader Judith Collins has slammed the Government’s proposed new national health service, saying it is the wrong time, will be too centralised in Wellington and that the new proposed Ma¯ori Health Authority is a move towards a ‘‘separatist model’’.
‘‘It’s really important that a big focus is put on primary healthcare. [The plan] does not do that, it is setting up a new bureaucracy in a couple of years’ time,’’ Collins said.
‘‘Now is not the time to be restructuring in the middle of a pandemic and an inability to get vaccines out.’’
Collins said that a new mega agency wouldn’t necessarily fix poorly performing DHBS.
‘‘One of the reasons is, if you take organisations that are dysfunctional – and some of the DHBS clearly are – and you add them all together, you end up with one big dysfunctional mess, and that is the problem.’’
She said National was committed to continuing the DHB model, although possibly not in its current form. She said that pointing the finger for health dysfunction at the feet of DHBS misplaced blame.
‘‘I think what is very clear from the pandemic too is how utterly hopeless the Ministry of Health has been in letting us know what is happening. I wouldn’t just blame the DHBS.
‘‘If we think for a moment that there are not issues in Northland that are different from Auckland then we are dreaming.’’
Collins said that the new system was a rehash of amodel, under a 1990s National Government, of Regional Health Authorities, which she said failed.
‘‘I’m not sure shifting everything into the bureaucracy in Wellington willmake one iota of difference.’’
People being handed a factually incorrect pamphlet about masks atwellington train station have been asked by Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins to throw it in the bin.
‘‘That’s the only place fit for them,’’ Hipkins said at amedia conference yesterday.
Members of anti-mask group Freedom Alliance NZ were handing out pamphlets this week in the Wellington region – which included misinformation on face coverings – to people using public transport. They have also commandeered a Ministry of Health card that exempts people from wearing face coverings, using it as a loophole to bend Covid-19 travel rules.
Wearing a face covering on public transport and flights is mandatory under alert level 1. The card is intended to exempt people with a disability or a condition that makesmask use unsuitable and anyone can download it from the Ministry of Health’s website.
Hipkins said he was aware of people handing out printed material that looked professional, and they had been particularly active in the Wellington region. The pamphlets had a lot of information that was ‘‘factually wrong and potentially dangerous’’.
He called on people who received the pamphlets to throw them in the rubbish bin.
Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) chief executive Prudencewalker previously said it was disappointing to see people taking advantage of the exemption card.