What sort of shape is our health system in? Is it the third world's cast-off that some commentators would have us believe, or is it a model of success?
Sick of hearing from disgruntled patients, media reports and self-serving politicians, I decided to carry out my own independent study of the health system to get to the bottom of it. The results surprised me. Our local health system scrubbed up surprisingly well globally, but it's clear that there is a substantial mismatch between the public's expectations and what the health system actually delivers. Some hard calls need to be made.
In 2009 I published Health Cheque, the truth we should all know about NZ’s public health system. We had a huge response to this publication and obviously touched a few nerves. Due to the feedback of Health Cheque my colleague Geoff Simmons and I have recently published a follow up;
A Prescription for Change.
Health Cheque looked inside the issues of our public health system but
A Prescription for Change takes us a step further and explores the changes that need to be made to improve our current system.
