"A dressing on a gaping wound" – Dr. Lance O. Sullivan criticizes the New Zealand health system and its response to meningococcal disease | 1 NEWS NOW



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After decades of failing New Zealanders – especially Maori – our health system needs a "mbadive overhaul," Dr. Lance O. Sullivan said today, comparing the recent response. from the government to a deadly meningococcal epidemic to a "plaster covering injury".

The former New Zealander of the year spoke to 1 NEWS after "raging" on Facebook the three people recently deceased in Northland because of the outbreak – and the announcement by the government yesterday that it would launch a targeted action in the region.

Alexis Albert, one of the victims, died in July, just days after her seventh birthday. Health officials were first alerted of a possible outbreak in May.

"I'm delighted to see another New Zealand brown child dying from a complicated health system," said Dr. O. Sullivan in a scathing critique that he had written while listening to Bob Marley.

"Access to appropriate clinical care is the big problem.

"… I am ashamed to be a doctor in such a complicated system and I can not wait for people to control their own health !!"

Addressing 1 NEWS later, Dr. O. Sullivan pointed out that he was not making a political statement nor intended to blame the work alone.

"It's not me saying that one government is worse than another, they are as bad as each other," he said. "Incompetence, inefficiency and the inability to address health inequities, despite all rhetoric, are an old thing.

"And frankly, people like me are fed up."

A radical change – that's what we need – he said, is not about tinkering with the current health care system with minor changes.

"We have to erase this slate and look at something completely different," he said. "We need to consider transforming this health system beyond recognition, because for most people it does not work.

"More importantly, for my people, it does not work at all."

Jacinda Ardern says that the MenW strain has reached epidemic level in Northland, where three people died this year.

Source: 1 NEWS


He said the government announced yesterday that it will receive 20,000 doses of MenW vaccine in the coming weeks for free distribution to Northland children. It was an "instinctive reaction to the crisis that has been raging for decades."

So far this year, 29 people have contracted the new meningococcal strain in New Zealand, including seven in Northland.

"There is strong international demand for the missing MenW vaccine," said Minister of Health Dr. David Clark yesterday. "Pharmac and the Ministry of Health have done well to supply 20,000 doses."

Dr. O. Sullivan's response: "I'm not inspired."

Dr. Emma Best, infectious disease specialist, speaks at breakfast about symptoms and how to act.
Source: breakfast


"I know we can not have a perfect system, but when we have one that is so crippled and mistakes are usually made by people, I just think we have to do something different," he said. -he adds. "So, it's a crisis, and the crisis is not limited to meningitis in Northland … I'm fed up with rhetoric." Change things, do not talk about it. Action, not words. "

Dr. O. Sullivan said in his article published on social media today that the system presented a major problem: incompetent doctors in the regions.

"Maori living in Hokianga are more likely to have their child with obvious symptoms of acute rheumatic fever missed by an import doctor on a three-month holiday in an extremely wealthy European country", a- he wrote, citing other cases of misdiagnosis. involving children in Rotorua and Whanganui.

"There is a great flow of change to come and in a biblical sense, it will purge those who oppose better health and, ultimately, mana for the people," he wrote. . "And right now, I'm having a big bad in the rain !!"

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