Hospice funding crisis is real and is urgent
I write in response to the letter from Sandra Buchanan (ODT 18.5.26).
First, your headline: ‘‘Hospice funding cuts add to a family's pain.’'
Letters to the editor serve public discourse best when their headlines are neutral and factual. This headline is provocative, attributing blame and emotional harm in a way the letter itself does not.
Ms Buchanan is absolutely right that hospice funding in New Zealand falls critically short. That only around half of hospice funding is provided by government is indeed a shocking state of affairs, and one that deserves sustained public attention.
I wish to thank Ms Buchannan for acknowledging the plight of hospice and would like the opportunity to clarify one point.
Otago Community Hospice (OCH) does not ‘‘outsource'’ respite care to aged-care facilities. The distinction matters. OCH is simply not funded to provide respite care.
The hospice's inpatient beds exist for a specific and important purpose: to care for the small number of patients whose symptoms are so complex that they cannot be safely managed at home or in a residential setting. These are not general palliative care beds; they are for acute and highly specialised symptom management.
Sometimes the beds are used for what we refer to as ‘‘carer crisis’’ where an admission is primarily to relieve the carer, for example if sick or injured.
The vast majority of specialist palliative care, and this is as it should be, is delivered where patients most want to be: in their own homes, or in their place of residence.
OCH also operates a residential care support service, which works alongside aged-care providers across the region. This service plays a vital role in supporting aged-care staff and residents who are approaching the end of life and require additional specialist input - a quiet but meaningful contribution that often goes unrecognised.
Ginny Green
Otago Community Hospice CEO
Democratic principles
Christopher Luxon defended the test which will be introduced for migrants seeking citizenship (ODT 8.5.26). One of the democratic principles to be included in the test is understanding that women have equal rights to men.
However, a year ago the government scrapped the pay equity claims which primarily affected low-paid women. A formal complaint has been lodged with the United Nations, asking it to investigate whether the government's changes amount to systemic discrimination against women (ODT 7.5.26). Go figure.
Hazel Agnew
Oamaru
Badgering on
For ages Maiki Sherman has been badgering, to say the least, politicians around the halls of Parliament, to the point of earning a suspension. Now apparently the level of scrutiny on her for a previous situation has placed enormous pressure on her, making her position untenable.
Imagine if all of the politicians she badgered walked off the job. Stand up and be counted for your errors and move on. Don't just give up because it's all too hard.
Jim McCormick
Oamaru
No nukes
To Thomas McAlpine (14.6.26). Nuclear energy is not a safe option, as research of the side effects will show. Even supposedly ‘‘safe’' plants can affect the workers and surrounding areas with increasing incidents of leukemia, other cancers and even sterility. There are also the waste products that the plant produces to deal with.
Lenni Allen
Portobello
Servicing debt and paying for fees-free university
The cost of living is already high, with fuel now added to the growing list of pressures. Fees-free study is ending, the superannuation age may rise, and the operating allowance in the upcoming Budget has been reduced to $2.1 billion. Many people ask why any government would make such decisions, especially in an election year.
After reading p240 of Barry Soper’s book One Last Question Prime Minister, I better understood the financial pressures facing governments today. Writing about Jacinda Ardern’s government, Barry Soper noted that Labour borrowed heavily — around $60 billion, more than doubling national debt. New Zealand is now paying about $10b annually just to service that debt.
There simply is not enough money to fund everything without increasing borrowing further. New Zealand must find ways to grow economically and retain skilled workers who are leaving for higher wages in Australia.
Australia has long benefitted from mining profits. Could responsible mining also help Otago and New Zealand by creating stable, well-paid jobs, reducing debt, and strengthening the economy? After all, gold helped build our Heritage City.
Bernice Armstrong
North East Vallley
Pondering the by-election and voting iterations
The ODT reported (14.5.26) “Ms Galer (10,201 votes) has been elected, while Mr Hawkins (10,112 votes) finished second and Conrad Stedman (7447 votes) third.”
Galer overtook Hawkins when the 2562 later preference voters of those who voted for Stedman favoured Galer over Hawkins in a ratio of 2033:529, or approximately 4:1.
It would be reasonable to assume, on a principle of the reciprocity of preferences, that the later preference votes of those who voted for Galer, might also favour Stedman over Hawkins in a similar ratio.
So in a hypothetical situation in which one excludes Galer at the 12th iteration, and extrapolates using similar proportions of later preferences votes (the known proportion of Stedman voters at iteration 12 which had later preference votes for Galer or Hawkins, which was 2562 of Stedman’s 7447 votes at iteration 12), made in a similar ratio (2033:529 for Stedman:Hawkins) one can determine how well Hawkins and Stedman might have done if they were the last two horses in the race.
Based on the assumptions above, with the hypothetical exclusion of Galer at iteration 12, Hawkins would be on 10,163 and Stedman on 9677. So Hawkins still comes second overall, but the distance behind of Stedman in third place is much less than in the numbers reported, in which it is invisible that many of Galer’s voters may have preferred Stedman to Hawkins.
Malcolm Moncrief-Spittle
Dunedin
Food priorities
What kind of country are we? How can our government invest $6.3 million over three years to bring the Michelin Guide to New Zealand when so many families are suffering food insecurity?
Of course mothers will limit their own food intake to feed their children (Opinion ODT 12.5.26).
However, many will also be pregnant or breast feeding which will also affect their infants and unborn children.
Yan Campbell
Shiel Hill
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