A health summary
Colin Espiner usefully lists all the problems in the health sector, since Pete Hodgson became Minister:
# Junior doctors have gone on strike, crippling hospital services and disrupting thousands of patients.
# Fresh doubts have emerged over the adequacy of the maternity care system.
# People with benign tumours have been sent home by their specialists and told to wait until the tumours get bigger or turn cancerous.
# Thousands have been culled from waiting lists, 4500 in Canterbury.
# The aged-care sector has been dogged by claims of under-funding and elder abuse.
# Warnings have emerged of a GP crisis as hundreds prepare to leave the profession.
# The Ministry of Health has been severely criticised for under- preparedness for bird flu.
I thought the story that summed things up the best was the quote that just because someone has cancer, doesn’t mean they will qualify for treatment!!!