Publicly funded hospital calls for donations to treat burns victims

TVNZ report:

Middlemore Foundation chief executive Sandra Geange said the National Burn Centre team, which is currently caring for eight of the 14 patients, has been stretched.

She made an appeal for donations to help “ease the immense pressure” while victims are undergoing lengthy and painful treatments, with many of them having to endure long periods in isolation due to a very high risk of infection.

“Middlemore Foundation are asking for money over goods to support this appeal, due to time and resource constraints. This is to speed up the process and provide support as fast as possible where needed.”

Unbelievable. The Government says it has spent far more on health, yet a public hospital has to call for donations to cover a core service of emergency treatment.

Only this Government could increase funding yet deliver worse outcomes – we have seen cancer waiting times increase, ED waiting times increase and vaccination rates drop.

It is not unusual for hospitals to ask for donations for new facilities such as a new children’s hospital. But I can’t recall before a hospital having to ask for donations to fund an emergency treatment service.

There is something wrong if the Government bureaucracy is so hidebound that Middlemore has to do this.