Diseases of poor and war
My grandmother Joan Scott was a midwife. But when World War II arrived, her hometown of Liverpool needed nurses as well – and so it was she met an injured Kiwi sailor.
She and my grandad eventually settled in the Northland town of Kawakawa, where she was a hospital midwife. There are still women named Sister Scott, after her.
I tell you this as my pepeha, my explanation of where I come from and why I have something to say about Kaitaia GP Dr Lance O’Sullivan’s trenchant criticism of health provision in the North.
This week, O’Sullivan attacked a health system that he saw failing Ma¯ ori and Pasifika children with rheumatic fever and meningococcal disease. ‘‘I get f...ed off to see another brown kid in New Zealand dying.’’
Some doctors were infuriated, accusing him of showboating in TV studios, while they showed up to their clinics.
The truth is, the health problems facing communities like Kawakawa and Kaitaia are so far-reaching and profound that there is a need for medical professionals, iwi and councils to throw the kitchen sink at them. Doctors and nurses are working their fingers to the bone. Some offer grassroots solutions: this week Northland launches enhanced school-based health services across the region.
Other solutions involve diagnosing kids on mobile apps, spreading immunisation messages on breakfast TV, and shoulder-tapping politicians.
Yesterday, I sat down for a chat with O’Sullivan, in town with two of his boys. He told gruelling stories of a young Hokianga woman whose rheumatic heart disease was wrongly diagnosed as gout, or a family friend who died after doctors missed her melanoma. He believes the entire health system structured around doctors earning $200,000 a year needs to be reshaped.
What is clear is there are regions still suffering the same diseases of poverty that my grandmother first encountered.
Some doctors and nurses work long hours in their clinics; some work to influence Government. We need both.
O’Sullivan interrupts me – he’s just spotted Jenny Shipley entering a cafe. And off he runs after the former prime minister, leaving me to look after his kids.
He has a shoulder to tap.