ACC misadventure, treatment bill comes to $70 million

you are a rather sad little man alien.

I am in Wellington... hence the abbreviation.

I went to Hutt hospital for the TMJ xray and as I said.. their machine is extremely old and barely works.

In small towns there is also limited access to specialists within the public health system.. I know people that have had to travel from Napier, hastings etc just to see orthopedic surgeons and nuerologists.

The public health system doesnt recognise many illnesses that are recognised overseas.

The reasoning, a majority of our funding.. yes particularly public health goes into big business illnesses, cancer, asthma, parkinsons and gastro complaints.

And yes alien, some of the doctors from the public health system work in the private sector as well.

The difference being in a private hospital which pays more and doesnt have the patient overload, doctors can afford to have a bedside manner and are less likely to make mistakes.

I know the public health system very well alien, somewhat better than you as I frequent it on a monthly basis and have for decades.

I watched as the government changed treatment from Hollistic to symptomatic (decades ago) which meant the average time to diagnose many conditions quadrupled in comparisson to other countries.

6000 filed complaints in an 8 month period alien, and that doesnt include those that didnt file claims.

Wgtn, typically in NZ the private hospital doctors are the same doctors that work in the public hospitals. Don't know what your city is like, but here in Timaru, with our small public hospital, it's equipment is great, and very capable of doing the job. I've been to the hospital for x-rays and scan's and had no problems, but i guess there is the possibility you are just telling more lies. Having been in both a private and public hospital i find the level of care the same, the problem with private hospitals is that they are not capable of doing anything other than what they are set up to do adn when complications arise they have to ship the patient off to the public hospital. The pay rises are to keep the highly qualified doctors in the health sector rather than lose them to an overseas position.

As is always the way brian, you get what you pay for.. private hospitals do have better quality doctors as they are paid more.

The problems with the public health system are numerous and only one of these is the administration.

Equipment is worse than in private hospitals with private hospitals in New Zealand having the only available Positron emission tomography scanners.

Government may have reduced administration duties but they have done nothing to fix the lack of requisite specialists or the lack of modern diagnostic machines.

I went to the hospital for an xray on my TMJ joints... while I was there the machine they used broke down because it was so old it was overheating.

The majority of people receiving pay hikes are already well paid doctors with (some) administration staff, with nurses and orderlies, kitchen staff as well as cleaners all being shafted by the government on salary increases.

The health system has major flaws in the way that they are run not coming primarily from the administration within the hospital (believe me, thats only a tiny part of the problem).

It is government that has made the public health system as bad as it is, we may have just had a recession but both National and Labour have been hacking at the health system and underfunding it for decades.

I wouldnt trust a doctor within the public health system to know how to adequately diagnose a cold let alone anything of significance.

I would like to see is - where all these ACC claims are concerned - just what the ratio of this debacle is between that of the "public" to "private" sector is as I feel the main problem - excuse me Wgtn - is with our DHB's, and it's not just the doctors within that system, but the system in its entirety.

If you are "Private" either with your own cash or that from health insurance, your "chances" are many fold better.

Why?
Firstly, it's timely. No horrendous "waiting list crap" with its - almost - never ending put-offs requiring even more GP referrals (all at further costs upon us, via taxes) and:
Secondly, EFFICIENCIES within the "Private" sector that will never be achievable by the petty bureaucratic "controlled" "Public" system.

The differences in structures favouring Private to Public is the absence of "the idiot factor" endemic within the public sector we can't seem to rid ourselves of because it is "built in" with hoards of headless chooks whose only 'aim in life' is to create "problems" the rest of their brethren are only there to "turn back around" to their referrers so as to continue to perpetuate the never ending cycle. But - otherwise?
Why?
The obvious answer. Private Hospitals are efficient.
Again why?
Another obvious answer. THEY HAVE NO PETTY BUREAUCRACY.

When all our Public Hospitals are PRIVATISED the bulk of our tax $'s will then be far better spent paying for "what is needed" WHEN IT IS NEEDED in the most efficient way possible as the "Private" sector will only be "paid" upon results. QED.

3153 accepted with another 1600 pending approval? in just 8 months? thats ridiculous.. that means the figures show that close to ten people a day are filing against doctors for misconduct or failing to catch a diagnosis.

This just proves how bad New Zealand doctors really are.. in total close to 100 million dollars of tax payers money will go to ACC just to cover bad doctors.