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Speaker 1: A little bit of help coming. We've got an additional

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Speaker 1: fifty senior doctors and seventy five nurses. Association of Salary

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Speaker 1: Medical Specialists Boss Sarah Dalton is with this. Sarah, very

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Speaker 1: good morning to you, Sheldon mike Hawa. I'm well, indeed,

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Speaker 1: I know what you will say. But it's better than nothing,

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Speaker 1: isn't it?

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Speaker 2: Well? It depends effectively. What the minister has announced is

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Speaker 2: fifty extra vacancies on an already very long vacancy list.

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Speaker 1: Where are they getting them from? By the way, through

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Speaker 1: a covert of senior doctors about the place.

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Speaker 2: Oh I wish, wouldn't that be nice? All I want

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Speaker 2: for Christmas seventeen doctor doctors?

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Speaker 1: Are we bringing them in or training them? Does this?

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Speaker 1: What does this actually achieve?

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Speaker 2: I know I hate to reign on the parade, but

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Speaker 2: I really don't think it achieved anything. I think it's

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Speaker 2: really disappointing. And given that last year's works was planned

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Speaker 2: put out by Health New Zealand that I identified finally

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Speaker 2: put a number on a shortage of senior doctors in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand seventeen hundred and that included GPS actually and

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Speaker 2: they said here's a number. This is how many we

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Speaker 2: think we need, and nothing that has happened since has

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Speaker 2: referred in any way, shape or formed through that data,

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Speaker 2: or has attempted to address it in any concrete or

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Speaker 2: tangible way. And you know the minister's announcement yesterday, which

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Speaker 2: is we're going to made up the doctors for some

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Speaker 2: areas in particular need. Well, you know we have one

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Speaker 2: of our members on the radio yesterday from Wipe it

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Speaker 2: up as saying, well, we could take twenty of those tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: and that's one place. And of course the same day

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Speaker 2: we've got if I to word of consulting with staff

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Speaker 2: in the National Public Health Service Data and Digital Directorate

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Speaker 2: about tens of millions of dollars of planned I call

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Speaker 2: them cost savings.

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Speaker 1: Does any of that, by the way, before you phone

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Speaker 1: completely dies, does any of that come from if Lester

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Speaker 1: Levy finds millions, Does any of that go to the

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Speaker 1: front line or not? Or is that just savings?

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Speaker 2: Well, we think we're taking it from the front line.

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Speaker 2: There's nothing more frontline than our National Public Health Service.

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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you're you're generalizing onto it. We we all

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Speaker 1: think of frontline as doctors and nurses, people who jab

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Speaker 1: things into my arm. If in the back rooms is

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Speaker 1: what we're saying, does that actually get to a doctor

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Speaker 1: or a nurse.

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Speaker 2: Well, I need to be really clear that the National

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Speaker 2: Public Health Service is really frontline. Like that is immunizations,

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Speaker 2: that is pandemic preparedness and response, that's border controls. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's a communicable disease. That is the real basics offline healthcare,

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Speaker 2: and we're in a hooping cough epidemic. Also data and

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Speaker 2: digital you may well call it back room, but the

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Speaker 2: real gains, other than finding enough staff, which is proven difficult,

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Speaker 2: you know, doctor's nurses, et cetera, would be having amazing

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Speaker 2: digital infrastructure, amazing electronic tools that help our people do

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Speaker 2: their jobs sufficiently and better. At the moment. Now it's

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Speaker 2: a clunker, yes it is.

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Speaker 1: But having said that, I don't want to argue with you, Sarah,

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Speaker 1: because it's Christmas and I also like you. But we

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Speaker 1: have no money and Health New Zealand is bleeding to

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Speaker 1: a million and a half a month of way, but

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Speaker 1: it's a billion dollars a year. It's a disaster. We

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Speaker 1: have no money.

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Speaker 2: I guess the commissioner like to talk about invest to

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Speaker 2: save and I think given the wider economic indicators of

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Speaker 2: listening to your previous interview, a health system that is

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Speaker 2: not able to care for people is a real additional

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Speaker 2: productivity drain on the economy. You know, people who have

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Speaker 2: well to work are again people who can't access care

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Speaker 2: who would otherwise be working and contributing is a problem.

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Speaker 2: So I think this government really needs to think about

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Speaker 2: what are the basics of healthcare and you know what buildings, equipment,

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Speaker 2: people do they need to deliver because and it's better

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Speaker 2: than a one year three year government term, right, So

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Speaker 2: we need a little bit of courage and a little

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Speaker 2: bit of foresight, but longer term can here.

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Speaker 1: All right, good to see you appreciate it, Sarah Dalton.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.