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Speaker 1: Now a new report has found that our heart health

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Speaker 1: system is on the verge of collapse. According to the

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Speaker 1: Ministry of Health Data, there are fewer than one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty cardiologists and cardiac staff in the whole country,

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Speaker 1: and none at all in places like tied Arfitsi Lakes

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Speaker 1: or Funganui. Heart disease is responsible for twenty percent of

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Speaker 1: all deaths in this country costs US more than thirteen

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Speaker 1: billion dollars a year. Doctor Richard Sullivan is Health New

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Speaker 1: Zealand's chief Clinical officer and with us, Hey, Richard good Head,

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Speaker 1: do you think we have enough staff dealing with hearts

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Speaker 1: in this country.

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Speaker 2: I'll look firstly to your point out report. I think

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Speaker 2: some great news in there that what we've seen over

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Speaker 2: the last twenty years is a significant reduction and death

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Speaker 2: from heart disease and a sidelist production in our hospitalizations.

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Speaker 2: We see a lot of work to do, particularly in

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Speaker 2: the space of our heart skins, so what we call

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Speaker 2: into cardiograms, and so that is a key challenge for us.

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Speaker 2: We've got some of our regions that are well staffed

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Speaker 2: and become a heart cartac space, the Northern region for instance,

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Speaker 2: Other areas as you've mentioned Tarapati, Taranaki, whereby we do

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Speaker 2: have challenges in our workforce in those places.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think the lack of cardiac stuff in

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Speaker 1: those areas that you just named is directly responsible for

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Speaker 1: the deaths?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, it's more complicated than that. When you think

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Speaker 2: about heart disease. It's really the risk factors that can I.

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Speaker 1: Just point something out to you. The areas with the

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Speaker 1: highest heart disease death rates tier Arfity Lakes, fung Luis

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Speaker 1: and Taranaki have the fewest cardiac stuff. That seems like

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Speaker 1: that's a causation.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it. Yeah, I'm not sure i'd quite draw that bow.

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Speaker 2: There's no doubt that. I mean, in those populations you

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Speaker 2: have just described, we see higher rates of diabetes, we

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Speaker 2: see a higher rates of other I guess those respectives

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Speaker 2: that lead to heart disease. And so yeah, super important

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Speaker 2: because it's about that primary care access first, you know,

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Speaker 2: so people can get seen, we can mitigate those risks.

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Speaker 2: But the problem is as once you've got heart disease,

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Speaker 2: then absolutely you know, having the right access to services

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Speaker 2: is super important to try and minimize and I'm going

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Speaker 2: harm from once you've got establish art disease. So there's

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Speaker 2: a there's are trying to reduce and prevent the risk,

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Speaker 2: and then there's Okay, I've got it and I've got

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Speaker 2: the right services to make sure that i get the

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Speaker 2: best care.

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Speaker 1: Do we have enough full time cardiologists or any type

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Speaker 1: of cardiologists in this country?

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Speaker 2: Look, as I mentioned, in some spaces we do, and

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Speaker 2: other me across the.

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Speaker 1: Whole country, Richard, do we have enough in the country?

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Speaker 1: Because the answer is not made how.

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Speaker 2: Well I'm worried about I'm not I've not been weird.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure it is because it's not about just

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Speaker 2: about cardiologists. So we have lots of people who deliver

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Speaker 2: the heart health care. So in an area is like

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Speaker 2: one going to they don't have any cardiologists, they have position.

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Speaker 1: Just treat people with respect, right rather than spinning us.

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Speaker 1: We have got thirty two point eight full time equivalent

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Speaker 1: cardiologists per million people, which is less than a third

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Speaker 1: of the average and European countries. That's not enough.

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Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not suggesting that, you know, we always

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Speaker 2: need more health workforce either. I guess what I'm trying.

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Speaker 1: To say that why don't you say no, we don't

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Speaker 1: have enough. Actually what we need is some more and

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Speaker 1: we need some more cash to be able to do that,

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Speaker 1: because that's the actual answer, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Just so I know, I don't agree with you. I

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Speaker 2: think the answer is far more complicated that we you know,

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Speaker 2: we need we need more eco technicians. We're working hard

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Speaker 2: to do that. We need more cutect physiologists, we need

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Speaker 2: more you know, nurse practitioners, advanced, very specialist. So so

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Speaker 2: we need the workforce to deliver heart health. But really importantly,

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Speaker 2: we also need to reduce the risk of heart health,

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Speaker 2: and you know that's what this report shows. It shows

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Speaker 2: we're making in roads, but we've got significant variations you

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Speaker 2: will have seen in the report, which is a real concern.

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Speaker 2: You know, we still see a Maori specific caving Twoton's

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Speaker 2: greater risk of harm from heart disease. We see these regions,

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Speaker 2: these rural spaces you've described, So it's really that focus

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Speaker 2: and you know we are you know, trying to improve

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Speaker 2: the opportunity here. So teleacity, as I say, is a

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Speaker 2: really good example. We've been working really closely with that

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Speaker 2: region and we're looking at joint appointments because we've really

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Speaker 2: struggled to recruit cardiologists into straarity. So we're looking at

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Speaker 2: a joint appointment between White Catto and Tiapity. Well, no,

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Speaker 2: it's not no one's to live here, it's aout. It's

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Speaker 2: about that kind of level of care because if you're

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Speaker 2: cardiologists these days, they get more specialized, so they might

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Speaker 2: be involved in putting stints all the neighbor doing other things.

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Speaker 2: So being able to do that as well as work

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Speaker 2: in that community because we don't put stints in that space,

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Speaker 2: you know. So it's about that kind of connection. So

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Speaker 2: you can make those roles and those jobs across regions

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Speaker 2: and that's one of the real opportunities we think we

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Speaker 2: have our we've got a national heart network but is

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Speaker 2: trying to address many of these challenges. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we've established national guidelines around echo. We've set up this

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Speaker 2: New Zealand training program because all our ECHO technicians used

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Speaker 2: to train the Queensland and so they wouldn't come back.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we're putting a real investment in the

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Speaker 2: spaces where we see the greatest need. A lot to

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Speaker 2: your original question, we need more people, but we need

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Speaker 2: to focus on the area.

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Speaker 1: Yes, we do. Now very quickly, what's going on with you?

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Speaker 1: People charging this much money on parking? Are you comfortable

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Speaker 1: with that?

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Speaker 2: So look, we're we're about the national parking policy and

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Speaker 2: I think I can say is that the issue raised

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Speaker 2: that's been paused while we just review what is the

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Speaker 2: right model coming? I can't answer that either. I'll say soon,

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Speaker 2: but I can't give you a date.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Richard, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: coming on. That's Richard Sullivan, who is doctor Richard Sutherland,

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Speaker 1: Health New Zealand's Chief Clinical Officer. For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be

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