Nelson can only be a loser from Labour’s radical centralization of healthcare and the scrapping of our Nelson/Marlborough District Health Board. It will mean Nelsonians having to travel more often to Christchurch or further to get access to specialist health services. It will make it harder for Nelson to attract and keep top medical professionals. It will mean the loss of local jobs. It will reduce accountability and innovation in our local health services.
Nelson has had control over its health services since the first hospital was built on Waimea Road in 1869. It’s been called a Hospital Board and then a Health Board, had changes in the mix of elected and appointed members and expanded in area, but it has always been governed by local people and a local Chief Executive.
The Nelson Marlborough DHB has had a long record of good performance. It did an exemplary job with Covid last year and is leading NZ in vaccination rollout. It has lead innovations with links between primary and secondary care, cardiac care, hospice and mental health.
I would back big as better if it worked but it is the biggest DHB’s that have had the most troubles. I have been contacted by UK doctors who describe themselves as refugees from their NHS who are horrified that New Zealand is adopting their centralised model.
This takeover of our health services from Wellington follows last year’s changes in education where Government took over our 115 year old locally run polytechnic NMIT. Water is next on Labour’s centralisation agenda. Labour loves big bureaucracies and believes Wellington knows best. The Kiwibuild promise of 1000 homes in Nelson/Tasman but with none built shows Wellington cannot deliver.
Health care will always be complex and expensive. I am open to genuine improvements and efficiencies but these changes are bad for Nelson.
