Elective Boost To Get More Kiwis Out Of Pain
Thousands more New Zealanders will get the procedures they need faster, with the Government today announcing 21,000 more elective procedures over the next year through its Elective Boost programme, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
'With over 215,000 procedures set to go ahead over the next year – over 21,000 more than previously planned – wait times will reduce, helping more Kiwis access life-changing operations like hip and knee replacements and cataract surgeries sooner.
'Our Government is focused on real delivery. For patients stuck on surgical waitlists, that means getting their procedures faster, no matter where they live or who provides it.
'We're making the health system work smarter, using both public hospitals and private providers in a coordinated national effort. New Zealanders don't care who does the operation – they just want it done and done quickly.'
Many of the procedures will be delivered in Health New Zealand's dedicated elective facilities, including Manukau Health Park, Tōtara Haumaru on the North Shore, and Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. Others will be completed by private hospitals under new national agreements.
The next phase of the Elective Boost follows strong early results:
More than 12,764 procedures delivered to 1 June, outpacing the 10,579 target set for 30 June.
The majority of procedures delivered have been for people waiting longer than four months for treatment.
Statements of work issued to 60 private providers to deliver surgery at consistent national rates.
'We're taking a joined-up approach to procedure delivery. That means removing hold-ups, providing certainty, and unlocking capacity across the system,' Mr Brown says.
'This is how we start to fix the waitlist crisis that grew under the previous government. Too many Kiwis have been waiting in pain for procedures that could transform their lives – a tradie needing a shoulder operation to get back to work, a nana needing cataract surgery to see her grandkids clearly, or a child waiting months for tonsils to be removed. We're turning that around.'
Mr Brown says the long-term goal is to treat 95 per cent of patients within four months by 2030 as part of the Government's health targets.
'Our Government is investing $30 billion a year in health, and we're backing that investment with a relentless focus on delivery. We are ramping up capacity in public hospitals, partnering with private providers in a more strategic way, and most importantly, we are getting Kiwis the care they need,' Mr Brown says.
'We've already delivered thousands of extra procedures through the Elective Boost, and now we're building on that with thousands more to put patients first.'
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Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
DIY funerals — a big undertaking
Dad was still alive when Mum told the care facility manager we did not intend to use a funeral director. The manager was flummoxed. In 30 years, she had never heard of such a thing, she said. Over the next few days, as Dad grew weaker and the pain and nausea medication to manage symptoms of terminal cancer ramped up, behind-the-scenes conversations and emails focused not so much on his exit from this world but rather on how his body would exit the hospital-level care facility. Both management and family were negotiating unfamiliar territory. Could you please put in writing what you propose to do, management asked. And are you aware of all the necessary paperwork? Yes, we are, sort of, thanks. And would management like us to perhaps carry Dad out in a coffin under a sheet or maybe wheel him in his bed out through the laundry? A coffin out through the main entrance would be fine, but if the family prefers to use the laundry could you please let us know. The front door would do nicely, thank you. Depending on how hands-on you want to be, a DIY funeral can include delivering the coffin containing the body of your loved one to the crematorium or funeral service venue, as Bruce Munro and his mother discovered. Photo: Bruce Munro So, mid-morning on the Saturday of a recent long weekend, with one son overseas and the other on the wrong side of Cook Strait, Mum rounded up half a dozen able bodies who marched Dad in a plain white coffin out the care facility's glass front doors to the waiting, open boot of my sister's SUV. And it was all done without family realising, nor staff raising the alarm, that the body should not be moved until a doctor signed the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD). In the week to come, there would be several more missteps, hastily scribbled costings and belated discoveries before 200 people would rise to their feet as Dad's ashes were carried from a church auditorium reverberating to the sonorous skirl of bagpipes. Funeral debt has become a national conversation, fuelled by hushed calculations in hospital hallways, heartfelt exclamations over post-funeral sausage rolls and heated declarations in parliamentary hearings. People are feeling the sharp financial pinch of the legal, health and societal requirements of dealing with the body of their loved ones and memorialising their memories. It is estimated a basic funeral package, using a funeral director, now costs about $7500 for cremation and $10,000 for burial. To pay these bills, one in three New Zealanders are suffering financial hardship that often lasts six months or longer, according to a survey conducted in 2019. Anecdotal evidence suggests that hardship is increasing. Last year, Parliament's health select committee decided to take a look at the power of the funeral industry and the cost of cremations and funerals. It heard from affordable funeral advocates Death Without Debt, as well as representatives of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand and the Ministry of Health, before reporting back to the House just over a month ago. Death without Debt (DWD) spokespeople told the politicians DIY funerals were far cheaper, but that only about 230 people took this option in 2023. A significant barrier to more DIY funerals was the industry's control of part of the death certification process, they said. DWD wanted more of the cremation paperwork put online and the funeral industry's role limited to disposal of the body. The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ) took umbrage at what it described as DWD's "allegations of predatory behaviour". It did not think the funeral industry was broken, but added the government could improve things by finishing a review of the Burials & Cremations Act 1964, which began in 2010. The FDANZ urged the government to increase the maximum amount of the Work and Income funeral grant, currently $2445, and suggested legislation requiring funeral prices be transparent. It also argued the asset-testing threshold for funeral plans should be increased from $10,000 to $15,000 and said the legislative review should consider burial and cremation alternatives such as water cremation and human composting. The Ministry of Health (MoH) agreed burial and cremation processes, as dictated by law, were "outdated and disproportionate". It said it was in discussion with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Department of Internal Affairs about modernising funeral sector regulations. It estimated the cheapest option, a DIY funeral involving cremation, could be done for $1550. It appears most of the changes suggested to the health committee would do little to reduce the actual price of funerals, except for ideas that would help families more easily do it for themselves. It is certainly not easy at the moment. For Dad's funeral, we had to work hard and smart; we made mistakes but got there in the end. Implementation of changes suggested in the report, however, are mostly beyond the line of sight. In the meantime, in the hope it is useful, here is what our family found out and what we did. My Dad was a quiet, caring man — a retired school teacher and church minister — who loved rugby, a good joke and God. He was not perfect but was sincere and never, even in his final days, showed any signs of self-pity. Diagnosed in February with stage four melanoma that had spread to lung and brain, and declared beyond treatment two months later, he was reconciled to a shorter-than-expected life but was a little concerned about the process of a tumorous death. We, his family, were determined it would be as comfortable and pain-free as possible. That was an easy decision during the week we spent together while he could still walk, talk, eat and joke. Those days, especially after he ended up in hospital and palliative care doctors began appearing at the foot of his bed, were also filled with questions, lists and phone calls as we tried to navigate the alien world of death and dying. Doing it all ourselves was not a conscious decision; not at first. Faced with the option of filling out the 30-page Residential Care Subsidy (RCS) application ourselves or giving it to a lawyer to handle — "that's what a lot of people do" — an unspoken family belief in our capacity and a Scots-heritage aversion to unnecessary expense naturally led us down the DIY path. A couple of quick tips about the RCS application form that determines whether the State pays most of your loved one's asset-tested stay in rest home and hospital-level care: you can fill out the form as a "helper" without having Enduring Power of Attorney or having to apply to be an "agent"; while the form might be woefully worded, the Work & Income senior services call-centre staff are consistently fabulous; and even if the application is successful, your spouse or parent's superannuation plus the State's contribution might not cover the full, per-day cost of care. During that week, as well as precious moments and conversations with Dad and each other, we also settled on cremation rather than burial, selected a coffin and started to explore the bureaucracy of death. At my parents' nearest council-owned cemetery and crematorium, casket burials cost up to three times as much as the combined cost of cremation and ashes burial in a memorial plot. When a loved one dies, doing all the paperwork and many of the practical tasks is demanding, but a DIY funeral can save thousands of dollars. In the case of Bruce Munro's father, the cost was reduced from about $7500 to $4249 — more than 40% less than the average funeral involving cremation. In Dunedin, the differential is just as large — casket plot, internment fee and plot maintenance costs $5696.90, whereas cremation and internment in an ashes plot costs $1907.50. Dad's casket came from the local Coffin Club. During the past 15 years, more than half a dozen Coffin Clubs have popped up around the country — providing cheaper coffins and, in some cases, helping people build their own. There is only one in the South Island, the Kiwi Coffin Club Christchurch, started by Donna Sutherland, 12 years ago. Mrs Sutherland says demand has taken off during the past five years, driven by growing concern about the cost of funerals. In partnership with a local Men's Shed, the Christchurch club supplies about 100 adult-sized coffins each year — including the occasional one south of the Waitaki River — plus more than that number of "angel boxes" for babies. One of their plain, adult-sized MDF caskets costs $475; another $200 gives it a coat of paint. By comparison, the starting price of caskets available from Otago and Southland funeral directors ranges from $1150 to $1995. Dad's coffin was made of MDF, with wooden handles, lined, painted glossy white and met local crematorium standards. We know he was happy with it because he asked to see photos, joking he would not be able to see it when he needed it. By the end of those 10 days together as a family, Dad had been transferred to the hospital-level care facility. My brother and I then flew to our respective homes, having said our goodbyes to Dad; leaving Mum, our sister and her family to do shifts at his bedside, bearing a fortnight's helpless witness to the steady depletion of his life force. It was about then we got valuable guidance from two sources, started filling out the paperwork that would soon be needed and seriously wondered whether we had made the wrong decision. One information resource was the local crematorium, the other a death doula. Photos: supplied Death doulas, also known as death midwives, can educate, support and advocate for people preparing for death and those closest to them. The End of Life Doula Alliance Aotearoa lists dozens of professional and informal doulas, including a handful in Otago and Southland. The phone call yielding the crematorium's free guide to organising a private cremation and the death doula's $100 consultancy were both money well spent; each providing largely overlapping information we then cross-referenced to work out who did what, what forms needed to be filled in, when and sent to who. This is not a watertight list, but it might be helpful: When Dad died, the care facility would wash and dress his body; the GP would complete a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, Cremation Forms B and AB and Death Documents ($200 approx); we would arrange to remove Dad's body and ask the death doula to deliver the manaaki mats ($50); we would fill out the Application for Cremation and send it, along with all the death documents from the GP, to the Medical Referee; the Medical Referee would then fill out and send us Form F ($48); we would then book the cremation and, if we wanted, book to view the cremation; on the right day and time we would turn up at the crematorium with Dad's body in a compliant coffin, hand over the paperwork and pay for the cremation ($1125); within three days of the cremation we would register the death with Births, Deaths and Marriages ($33 to get the Death Certificate posted); and at about the same time, the ashes would be ready to collect from the crematorium in readiness for the memorial service. That's the theory. In practice, we reached a point one night a few days before Dad died — talking online in three cities across two hemispheres — at which we thought maybe we did need a funeral director. The forms were still confusing, negotiations with the care facility were getting ridiculous, and the logistics of caring for Dad's body without embalming until the cremation could occur seemed fraught with difficulty. We already had a quote from a funeral director for just the basics — arranging transfer of the body, care of the body for two nights, handling all the paperwork, delivering the body to the crematorium — but had decided against it after realising we could save $2480 by doing those things ourselves. For a moment that evening our resolve wobbled, thinking Mum might prefer to have a funeral director take it all off her plate. But she was the one who said, "No, we're well on our way, we can do this." I was five hours' drive from my home and an inter-island flight away from my parents' city when I woke to the message that Dad had died, peacefully, during the night. It was the afternoon of the next day before I could get there. By then, the care facility staff had gathered for a touching farewell as Dad's body exited the building; the coffin was placed in the coolest room of my parents house, the garage; and the GP had visited to view the body and fill out the forms that should have been completed at the outset. Dad had died at the start of a long weekend, which was challenging. The crematorium was phoned, messages left, forms emailed through; but it would be Tuesday before we could speak to anyone to confirm the cremation date. Then, we would still need to get the cremation done, wait three days for the ashes and then pick them up in time for the memorial service that an ever-growing number of people said they would be attending. The death of ODT journalist Bruce Munro's father, Murray Munro, 87, six weeks ago, led to the family organising a DIY funeral to celebrate his life. Photos: supplied All we could do was get on with caring for Dad's body, prepare for the service and pray it would all come together. Caring for his body mostly meant, every eight hours, changing the dry-ice gel manaaki mats covering his body and replacing the frozen water bottle beneath the crook of his neck. It was confronting, good for the grieving process — my main impression was just how thoroughly devoid of life his body was, a costume he had cast off. There were plenty of other things to do, including planning the service in which we were all going to take a full part. Mum and Dad's church community lifted the load significantly, offering to take care of flowers, most of the music, catering and printing the service booklet. Hurrying back with Mum from a shopping mall visit to get a memorial book for guests to sign, I was pulled over by a gaggle of police with speed cameras. Why were you doing 71kmh in a 60kmh zone? I'm just heading home to put my father's coffin in the back of the vehicle that will hopefully take it to the crematorium tomorrow, I replied. How about we make that 70kmh, dropping the fine from $80 to $30? That would be great, thank you. In the end, we had the ashes with a day to spare. A DIY funeral can be confronting, but it aids the grieving process and gives family and friends a chance to participate deeply in honouring the person's memory. Photo: supplied The parliamentary health select committee concluded "the current process and regulations impose high costs on the public and create a barrier for people who want to organise their own funerals, particularly when their loved ones are about to be cremated". Our family agrees. We got there, but it was a mission and not a cheap one. At the same time, although harder to navigate than it needs to be, DIY is eminently do-able and will save thousands of dollars. Taking into account the unavoidable costs plus extras such as death doula, manaaki mats, bagpiper, memorial garden ashes plot and koha to the church and livestream technician, we spent a total of $4249 — more than 40% less than the average cremation and almost 60% less than a typical burial. The select committee's report encourages the Ministry of Health (MoH) to prioritise updating cremation regulations and to carry out planned work to facilitate DIY funerals. An easy win, it says, would be for the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to make it easier to find DIY funeral information on the Te Hokinga ā Wairua End of Life Service website. In response to questions from The Mix, an MoH spokeswoman said a review, to make sure authorising cremation when the deceased had been in a care facility was as streamlined and cheap as possible, should be completed this year. But any legislative changes would need agreement from the government, she said. A DIA spokesman said work was under way to improve the website. Dad's memorial service was a month after we first gathered as a family and seven days after he died. It was a sad, wonderful and hope-filled occasion. As the piper led us out to the rousing, haunting tune of Amazing Grace, I was pleased we had done so much of it ourselves; from caring for Dad's body to battling with the paperwork and organising the service. It had allowed us, and others who loved Dad and cared for us, to more fully celebrate his life, mourn our loss and honour his memory. DIY funeral The plan was ... • When Dad died the care facility would wash and dress his body. • The GP would complete a medical certificate of cause of death, cremation forms B and AB and death documents ($200 approx). • We would arrange to remove Dad's body and ask the death doula to deliver the manaaki mats ($50). • We would fill out the application for cremation and send it, along with all the death documents from the GP, to the medical referee. • The medical referee would then fill out and send us form F ($48). • We would then book the cremation and, if we wanted, book to view the cremation. • On the right day and time we would turn up at the crematorium with Dad's body in a compliant coffin, hand over the paperwork and pay for the cremation ($1125). • Within three days of the cremation we would register the death with Births, Deaths and Marriages ($33 to get the death certificate posted). • At about the same time, the ashes would be ready to collect from the crematorium in readiness for the memorial service.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
New CT scanners bring mixed blessings for Palmerston North Hospital
Palmerston North Hospital currently relies on a single loaned CT scanner with limited capability. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham An announcement that Palmerston North Hospital will get two new CT scanners comes as medical unions warn the government of a dire shortage in radiographers nationwide. Radiographers are the medical-imaging technologists who, together with radiologists, read CT and MRI (whole-body) scans to diagnose and treat patients with injuries and serious diseases, like cancer. On Saturday afternoon, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the $12.7 million investment for Palmerston North hospital, saying it would "double scanning capacity and significantly improve access to diagnostic services across the region". "This is a major step forward for Palmerston North and the surrounding communities," he said. "It means faster diagnoses, shorter wait times and earlier treatment for people with serious conditions like cancer." The two new scanners would replace one ageing machine and the second would expand the hospital's capacity by about 3000 extra scans per year. "Doubling CT capacity means more timely scans and less stress for patients, with workforce planning already underway to support the expanded diagnostic service," Brown said. The hospital currently relied on a single loaned CT scanner with limited capability, which contributed to delays in emergency, inpatient, and elective care. "In some cases, patients must be transferred to other hospitals or private providers for scans," Brown said. "With greater scanning capacity, we'll ease pressure across the system - reducing ED delays, supporting planned surgeries and enabling faster diagnoses for time-critical conditions. "It will also reduce the need to outsource scans, ensuring patients are seen sooner and closer to home." The modular CT unit would begin operation in February and provide care for up to eight years, while a permanent imaging hub was developed as part of the hospital's wider redevelopment. Allied Scientific and Technical Health Practitioners union (Apex) national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said the new machinery would be well-received. Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the new $12.7m investment on Saturday. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER "The current CT scanner in Palmerston [North] is very old and breaks down frequently," she said. "Quite frankly, they're holding it together with band aids, so we certainly needed the replacement. "A second one obviously will help us put patients through more quickly, that's including guys in ED, as well as cancer treatment and other acute presentations. "That's good news for the people of that region. The one questions we would have is where's the workforce to run it?" Powell said New Zealand was desperately short of radiographers to operate the scanners. "They don't grow on trees, so I'd be delighted to see the minister's plan. I'm not aware that Te Whatu Ora has a workforce plan for the radiology services. "They acknowledge we do have a workforce crisis, but a plan to fix it has been a bit elusive to this point in time." Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the senior doctors' union and Apex only asked about radiology planning nationally last week. "Particularly staffing, because there are significant gaps." She said there were "significant issues around radiology staffing at Palmerston North", and the unions had called for reporting of national workforce planning and regional situations, which they were still waiting for. "While resource being put into new machinery is really important and we would welcome that, without appropriate levels of staffing, it is not going to be a simple fix." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Pandemic Perspectives Focus Of COVID-19 Inquiry Public Hearing Next Week
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned will next week hear a range of perspectives on the pandemic as the Inquiry's first public hearing begins. The Inquiry's 'Pandemic Perspectives' public hearing will take place between Monday 7 July and Friday 11 July. This hearing will allow Commissioners to hear from groups, organisations, and individuals from around Aotearoa New Zealand about their experiences of the pandemic and the Government's response to COVID-19. 'The Pandemic Perspectives public hearing will allow us, in the open, to hear a range of experiences as well as suggestions for future pandemic responses. It is important we listen to these voices and ask key questions, so we can develop robust findings and recommendations,' says Grant Illingworth KC, Chair of the Inquiry. Individuals, organisations and experts will talk about the effects of key public health decisions, including social division and isolation, health and education, and business activity. Commissioners are focusing the hearing on three key areas of the Inquiry's terms of reference and that have been key themes raised in public submissions already received by the Inquiry: · Lockdowns in 2021, in particular the extended lockdown in Auckland and Northland from September 2021. · Vaccine approvals and safety. · Introduction and use of vaccine mandates throughout 2021 and 2022. The hearing schedule and list of witnesses is available on the Inquiry's website: A second and final public hearing will take place from 20 August to 27 August in Pōneke Wellington, where Commissioners will hear from key decision makers who led the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and from senior public servants. 'As Commissioners, our job is to identify lessons from the country's COVID-19 response to ensure that as a nation, we can be better prepared for future pandemics,' says Mr Illingworth. 'Our goal is to provide recommendations – that can be understood by all New Zealanders – to help build a strong response for the future. 'We need a well-organised, resilient, robust defence, and we need to be able to come together as a country to face future pandemics.' Alongside the public hearings, the Inquiry has also held interviews with key decision makers, met with individuals and organisations who experienced the pandemic and the response to it, gathered 31,000 public submissions, and sought extensive written evidence from Government departments and other organisations. 'We are encouraged by and thank the 31,000 of you who shared your experiences through our recent public submissions process. I also thank the huge number of people and organisations we've met in engagements up and down the country. Your experiences and perspectives are vital to our work,' says Mr Illingworth. The 'Pandemic Perspectives' public hearing will be streamed on the Inquiry's website so it can be watched live by the public. Registered media will be able to attend the hearing for reporting purposes. A range of accessible resources will also be available during and after the hearings. Due to physical limitations, the Inquiry cannot accommodate members of the public.
