The Frontline with Dr Gary Payinda

Dr Erik Monasterio is a forensic psychiatrist with a long and illustrious career as a leader in forensic mental health, a speciality that works at the intersection of the criminal justice system and the health system.

We talk about potential solutions to NZ's shocking levels of youth suicide, serious mental illness, anxiety, and addressing the social determinants of health: things like social isolation, hunger, and homelessness.

We touch on healthcare privatisation, the extraordinary cost of incarceration, rehab, community healthcare, health targets, declined referrals, moral injury among staff, and above all, Erik's deep-seated belief that we can do better.

He says we can't resign ourselves to anger, despondency, and frustration. We can get back to a better, more fair society, one that looks after its own people.

"It can be done."

Today we talk with patient advocate and healthcare researcher, Dr Malcolm Mulholland, founder of Patient Voice Aotearoa and leader within Kaitiaki Hauora, Together for Public Health, an advocacy group fighting the privatisation of New Zealand's public healthcare system. 

We discuss the big myths of private healthcare: that it's cheaper and more efficient than public healthcare. And have a chat about the risks of healthcare privatisation: a loss of access for rural communities, a black box of 'secret' spending and loss of accountability, cherry-picked cases, and the shifting of public healthcare staff into the private hospital setting, accelerating the erosion of our public healthcare service.

For the first time in 90 years, police are campaigning publicly for better pay and working conditions. There are news stories of police using food banks, while numbers of new recruits in training have dropped. What are the facts behind the "Repay the Risk" campaign and how can the public ensure our essential public services are supported and maintained? We speak with Steve Watt, President of the NZ Police Association.

Last year, doctors and poets Art Nahill and Glenn Colquhoun drove thousands of kilometers in a converted 'Vanbulance' on their Hikoi4Health, and had thousands of conversations with patients, locals, and experts about what is wrong with NZ healthcare, and how we could improve it -- if we really wanted to.

They share those lessons here, on The Frontline with Dr Gary Payinda, in advance of the publication of their book, and the release of their documentary, coming out in September.

You heard it here first: Rethinking Health is coming.

https://healthreformnz.org/

PSA union organiser Theresa Nelson talks about how cuts to government healthcare budgets affect our rural communities. And whether our poorest, most remote, and underserved rural communities are spending far too much, or simply getting far too little.

#psa #health #tetaitokerau #rural #rawene #healthnz