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Speaker 1: Bryan Bridge.

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Speaker 2: Health New Zealand's border is being replaced by a new commissioner,

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Speaker 2: Professor Lester Levy, who was recently appointed the Chair of

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Speaker 2: Health New Zealand, will take charge of the organization for

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Speaker 2: a twelve month term. Health Minister Shane Retti has made

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Speaker 2: the move following what he called serious concerns around oversight,

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Speaker 2: overspend and a significant deterioration in the financial outlook. In

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Speaker 2: other words, financially, it's up the creek. Deborah Powell is

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Speaker 2: the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association National Secretary and she's

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Speaker 2: with me now. Deborah. Good morning, Deborah, good to have

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Speaker 2: you on the show. First of all, your reaction to

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Speaker 2: what the minister announced yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's a sad day in health. I have to

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Speaker 1: say whenever we get a board replaced by the autographic

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Speaker 1: system that is a commissioner, it's always a bad day.

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Speaker 1: It's also a bad day because the sole focus is

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Speaker 1: funding and money and it's important. I'm not saying it's not,

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Speaker 1: but it shouldn't be the sole focus. We should be

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Speaker 1: focused on our workforce, which Minister Etti then say would

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Speaker 1: be the priority, and we should be focusing on investing

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Speaker 1: in both workforce and our infrastructure to turn us around.

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Speaker 1: So no, it wasn't a good announcement. I'm a grade

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Speaker 1: is it?

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Speaker 2: Can you not see where he's coming from?

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Speaker 1: Though?

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Speaker 2: Because if you're putting in, if you're overspending by one

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million dollars per month, you've got it,

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Speaker 2: apparently an increase in full time equivalent workers, plus you've

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Speaker 2: got an increase in contractors, but the results are not

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Speaker 2: going up at the same rate. I mean, something's clearly wrong,

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Speaker 2: isn't there isn't it?

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Speaker 1: Well, our fundamental problem and I do see where he's

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Speaker 1: coming from. In one hand that let me explain. Our

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Speaker 1: fundamental problem is that we're underfunded. And it's not so

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Speaker 1: much mismanagement as underfunding. And quite frankly, I am sick

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Speaker 1: of successive governments blaming the government before for the underfunding.

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Speaker 1: We've been underfunded since the last Labor government and the

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Speaker 1: national government before that, and it's time to turn that around.

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Speaker 1: The money we get is always in catch up mode

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Speaker 1: these days. We need to get into an investment phase. Secondly,

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Speaker 1: and look, I'll use a real live example. We have

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Speaker 1: MRI scanners. These are part of the radiology group that

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Speaker 1: diagnose and then monitor treatment of patients their magnetic resonance

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Speaker 1: imaging scanners for the long term, so we call them mrs.

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Speaker 1: We have mrs interfatile Aora at this very moment lying

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Speaker 1: idle because we don't have the workforce to run them.

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Speaker 1: So of course cancer patients who need diagnosis and monitoring

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Speaker 1: are getting held up. Our weight lists are going for

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Speaker 1: surgery inpatients are sitting around because they need an MR

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Speaker 1: before we can actually release them to go home. So

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Speaker 1: these things are going on. But sorry, it's a bit long,

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Speaker 1: but we're spending This government has said thirty million dollars

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Speaker 1: more to outsource to private in order to get the

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Speaker 1: staff we need to run the scanners. We already have

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Speaker 1: one point five million. So yes, it is about the money.

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Speaker 1: But if you put your focus on workforce first, an

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Speaker 1: actual fact, you get a better financial outcome. And that's

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Speaker 1: where they're going wrong.

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Speaker 2: Well, well, is that not the point that shaneyit is

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Speaker 2: making exactly that he is going to be focusing on

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Speaker 2: the front line to make sure that those services are there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I haven't seen any of it. And what

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Speaker 1: we're all the signals we're getting is thirty million for

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Speaker 1: outsourcing one point five to support competitive rates of pay

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Speaker 1: for our own staff. No. Right, that's what we're seeing.

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Speaker 2: In a word, Deborah, because we are out of time.

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Speaker 2: Have the reforms is the creation of health in New Zealand?

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Speaker 2: Has that made the situation better or worse?

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Speaker 1: I think it's made it better. Before we had twenty

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Speaker 1: district health boards competing and that was wasting money. We

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Speaker 1: were duplicating services. It has been a difficult transformation, there's

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Speaker 1: no two ways about it. But it's still early days

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Speaker 1: in such a big change. It's only two years in

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Speaker 1: and going back into more restructuring, ref focusing regionally instead

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Speaker 1: of nationally. Look, it's just going to be more wasted

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Speaker 1: energy and resources, all right.

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Speaker 2: Debraah, thank you very much for your time. Nice to

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Speaker 2: have you on the show. Doctor Debrah Powell, who's the

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Speaker 2: New Zealand Resident Doctors Association National Secretary. For more from

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Speaker 2: News Talk ZEDB, listen live on air or online, and

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