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Speaker 1: As part of our ongoing coverage of this country doesn't

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Speaker 1: function very well. Theme, we have seen your doctors on strike.

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Speaker 1: Today four thy three hundred medical procedures are off Health

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Chief Clinical Office of doctor Richard Sullivan is

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Speaker 1: with us. A very good morning, more right, carry it

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Speaker 1: very well. Indeed, is this complex? Given you simply don't

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Speaker 1: do some stuff today, you schedule it for another day

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Speaker 1: and add it to the backlog.

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Speaker 2: So look, that's a great question that you know. Obviously

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Speaker 2: we've got significant weight lists, you know, for a patient

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Speaker 2: to be seen and get treatment, and so any any

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Speaker 2: day of no treatment has an impact on the waitlist.

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Speaker 2: But we're pretty focused on trying to reduce those weights

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Speaker 2: to try and reduce the harmdre our patients. So the

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Speaker 2: fact that I overook it's more than a day, it's

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Speaker 2: sort of a few days leading up to a strike.

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Speaker 2: In the day after we have to reduce your capescy

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Speaker 2: So at all that extra four three hundred you know

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Speaker 2: number that's going to impact on you know, just trying

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Speaker 2: to give people earlier access to care.

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Speaker 1: Really, I don't want to get into the politics of

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Speaker 1: all of this, but but but is as a mechanism

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Speaker 1: does it change anything really? So people don't turn up

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Speaker 1: to work for a day? They said, yes, we get

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Speaker 1: you met. What changes literally?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think probably the first point to make is,

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Speaker 2: you know it does change a lot because we have

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Speaker 2: to reduce our services significantly. And you know this is

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Speaker 2: a significant strike. You know, it's the twenty four hours

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Speaker 2: start at midnight finishes midnight tonight, and so we've had

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Speaker 2: to reduce our services, cancel our or postpones I say

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Speaker 2: our plan here, and so we've really put a real

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Speaker 2: focus on keeping a hospital safe today. That's probably the

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Speaker 2: most important thing and a really important message for our

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Speaker 2: communities are that if they need healthcare, do come in.

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Speaker 2: So our eedings, our meergorce departments are open, our hostels

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Speaker 2: are open, and we work closer to the union to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we have the right number of senenior

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Speaker 2: doctors on site to deliver the kear we need to.

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Speaker 2: So that's probably a key message for people to know.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, when you do that, yeah, well.

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Speaker 1: Let me I get all of that on a scale

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Speaker 1: of one team, though how strict you ten you can

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Speaker 1: barely cope one you breeze through today.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think we will be better five, so

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Speaker 2: we we're well prepared. We've done a lot of planning,

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Speaker 2: so we're confident. So far, we're six hours sending hours

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Speaker 2: into what we've had, no things coping well, and again,

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Speaker 2: as I say, we're working closely with the union to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we deliver that safe here. So I

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Speaker 2: think we'll get through today. I think the bigger issue,

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Speaker 2: as you say, is those tafear alls, those postponements of

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Speaker 2: KRE and that catch up and for those patients who've

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Speaker 2: got calls to say I'm sorry your operations been postponed

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Speaker 2: or you couldn't postpone, and we'll find your new time

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Speaker 2: on new days in the future.

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Speaker 1: Well, good luck with it. Dr Richard Sullivan, our Health

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Chief Clinical Officer. For more from the mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.