Two doctors are touring New Zealand in a repurposed van, hearing stories and collecting ideas for rescuing our country’s beleaguered healthcare system.
Called “Hīkoi for Health – A People’s Inquiry”, the mission began on 26 April in Kaitaia and is set to finish on 8 May in parliament grounds. The Gisborne leg of the journey coincided with May Day (the first of May) and a nationwide doctors’ strike for more pay. Staff from Gisborne Hospital and other concerned people marched through the city and gathered at Heipipi Park for speeches, attracting noisy support from passersby. A quieter meeting in the evening was similarly attended by about 200 people.
Dr Glenn Colquhoun and Dr Art Nahill, the initiators of the hīkoi, addressed the audience, along with local doctor Alex Raines and Malcolm Mulholland, chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa, before opening the floor to members of the audience. Although the issues involved aroused strong feelings of anger and sorrow the atmosphere of the meeting was warm and respectful, and many of the speakers were hopeful of finding solutions.
“Broken” was the word used repeatedly to describe the public health system. Medical professionals spoke of the extreme stress of working in an understaffed hospital, with long hours and impossible demands and the toxic work environment that develops as a result. Several speakers highlighted the critical shortage of healthcare workers and the difficulty of attracting more from overseas, while patients referred to their inability to access appropriate or timely treatment.
The question that arose for me was: why these two insightful men are taking their heartfelt mission to parliament? Apparently they still think that ‘the government’ can and should do something about the epidemic of chronic disease, and can or should be motivated to do so. Personally, I was more encouraged by the members of the public who suggested that we need to stop expecting politicians to solve our problems and look for grass-roots and genuinely community-led alternatives.
Of course that option is mind-bogglingly hard and, to make matters worse, practising medicine without a licence is illegal. Nevertheless, it is probably going to become inevitable: people are going to look for solutions outside of the system because pain and suffering will not wait for change to take place at the snail’s pace of bureaucracy.
There are ‘alternative’ practitioners who practice legally and they might fill some of the gaps, although how most people could afford their services is an uncomfortable question. Perhaps human goodwill will suggest some form of ‘paying it forward’ – paying for one’s own consultation plus another for somebody in need. But that would cost a lot more than a coffee, or even a meal. Maybe people will just get better at treating themselves and rediscover the old home remedies. Maybe that’s all that is really needed and maybe it will all turn out to be laughably simple. Hey ho! Positive thinking is good for your health, what?
