TVNZ Q&A: Former health boss: Why hospitals are overwhelmed

Oh hey, it’s winter! Whaddaya know?

And once again, flu and respiratory illness are putting enormous pressure on hospitals and frontline health workers.

This isn’t exactly a plot twist.

Our chair Rob Campbell joined Jack Tame on Q+A to talk about why New Zealand needs to stop treating health as something that happens once somebody gets sick and turns up at a GP clinic or hospital.

Vaccination matters – even though, as Rob points out, no vaccine is perfect. But so do housing, education, nutrition, prevention and accessible care in our communities.

That’s what an “all-of-health” approach looks like.

Because waiting for people to get sick, waiting for hospitals to buckle under entirely predictable pressure, and then scrambling to respond isn’t a health strategy.

One of our three asks is simple: fund our public health system properly.

Enough to plan. Enough to prevent. Enough to provide the healthcare New Zealanders need.

Watch Rob’s full Q+A interview with Jack Tame - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xLCu0Ip-24