The Sunday Long Read

For October 6th 2024

Last Sunday, I asked my readers whether they wished me to continue with a curated list of the news items they might have missed, or whether they would prefer me to take three news items and write an opinion piece about them. My thanks to the 182 of you who responded. Overwhelmingly 86% of you said you would prefer an opinion piece so, here goes.

Hospitals Inc.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/10/01/health-nz-urges-govt-to-consider-privately-run-public-hospitals/

The first piece of news I found very disturbing this week was the revelation (see above)  that Health New Zealand had told the government earlier this year that, given the size of investment required to upgrade and build new hospitals, they had floated the idea of a “Public Private Partnership solution.”

OK. Stop right there! Think about that combination of words “public private partnership” actually means in this context– namely that private companies would be able to make money out of providing a Health service that, for the last 86 years, has been freely available to everyone and paid for by the nation’s taxpayers on the principle that prompt access to medical treatment is a right.

So why isn’t this currently possible?