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Ian Powell
Otaihanga Second Opinion is a regular health systems blog in New Zealand.
Ian Powell is the editor of the health systems blog 'Otaihanga Second Opinion.' He is also a columnist for New Zealand Doctor, occasional columnist for the Sunday Star Times, and contributor to the Victoria University hosted Democracy Project. For over 30 years , until December 2019, he was the Executive Director of Salaried Medical Salaried Medical Specialists, the union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand.
Ian Powell - Latest News [Page 4]
DHBs: “Nice Little Earners” For EY
Saturday, 21 May 2022, 5:20 pm | Ian Powell
On 5 May Newsroom published a revealing article by investigative journalist David Williams on the rapid increase of income earned by EY business consultants (formerly known as Ernst & Young) from Aotearoa New Zealand’s district health boards: ... More >>
Proposed Income Insurance Scheme
Sunday, 1 May 2022, 5:58 am | Ian Powell
The proposed ‘New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme’ (‘the scheme’) has attracted strong debate among the more left-wing and liberal groupings, within New Zealand-Aotearoa. This debate should be seen as a positive rather than negative tension because of ... More >>
An Unresponsive Prime Minister And Health Minister To A Best Endeavour
Sunday, 24 April 2022, 7:33 pm | Ian Powell
I have expressed my concerns in these postings and other media outlets about the Government’s decision, without mandate or engagement with the health sector, to abolish district health boards (DHBs) in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public health system ... More >>
Bye-bye Subsidiarity; Hello Democratic Deficit
Monday, 18 April 2022, 7:05 pm | Ian Powell
Every piece of parliamentary legislation has a ‘purpose’ clause describing the legal means or effect of the legislation, usually clause 3 which communicates its intent. The Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill setting up the foundations of the New ... More >>
Strategic Covid-19 Direction Needed, Not Traffic Lights Red Herrings
Wednesday, 13 April 2022, 7:46 pm | Ian Powell
The debate over whether New Zealand’s Covid-19 ‘traffic lights’ system should be lowered from ‘red’ to ‘orange’ misses the point. In short, it is a red herring. The traffic light system is less about protecting the public and more about ... More >>
What Makes Good Public Health Sense Also Makes Good Sense For Other Things
Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 7:41 pm | Ian Powell
As my ‘love affair’ with New Zealand Aotearoa’s public health system grew over many years I learnt to pick up on a few soundbites that aptly summarised it. One was that if something made good clinical sense it would also make good financial ... More >>
More Harmful Than Flesh-eating Bugs
Thursday, 24 March 2022, 7:24 pm | Ian Powell
In 2003 Dr Peter Roberts published a book titled Snakes and Ladders: The Pursuit of a Safety Culture in New Zealand Public Hospitals . At the time Dr Roberts; an intensivist and physician, was completing his term as President of the Association ... More >>
Frailty, Dependency And Health Systems
Monday, 21 March 2022, 5:31 pm | Ian Powell
One of the things I enjoyed most when Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) was its annual conference, A feature was the enrichment provided by many engaging guest speakers on a wide range of pertinent subjects. At ... More >>
The Immorality Of Moral Equivalence
Thursday, 17 March 2022, 7:48 pm | Ian Powell
On 14 February, in an earlier Political Bytes blog posting, I wrote about the anti-vaccination occupation of Parliament grounds and surrounding streets and other locations. rights, responsibilities and the far right influence An important ... More >>
Ukraine War – A Continuation Of Politics With The Admixture Of Other Means
Thursday, 10 March 2022, 7:47 pm | Ian Powell
Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the ‘moral’ and political aspects of war. He is a source of many succinct quotations with arguably the most well-known being “War ... More >>
Peaking Of Omicron?
Sunday, 6 March 2022, 7:32 pm | Ian Powell
MartinJenkins consultancy director Nick Davis continues to produce interesting and relevant data on Covid-19 pandemic trends. This is even more so when they provide insights into what is happening or might happen in Aotearoa New Zealand. He has done ... More >>
Collective Interactions, Imitative Behaviour, Delusion And A Dickensian Tin Kettle
Sunday, 27 February 2022, 6:51 pm | Ian Powell
For several years I have subscribed to the New York Review of Books which has been a literary delight. Its overall political orientation is not mine but this adds to rather than detracts from its intellectual appeal. Unfortunately I have a backlog ... More >>
Time To Tax Property Speculation
Friday, 25 February 2022, 6:16 am | Ian Powell
When she became Prime Minister, following the September 2017 general election, Jacinda Ardern’s government established a working party to advise on taxation, including a possible capital gains tax. This was actioning a Labour Party election commitment. ... More >>
Wellington Now Faces A Public Health Emergency
Monday, 21 February 2022, 8:31 pm | Ian Powell
There have been many things said about the escalating debacle involving the occupation in and around Parliament grounds in Wellington. I’ve already blogged an assessment in my previous Political Bytes post: Rights, responsibilities and far right ... More >>
Health Systems, Patient Safety And Swiss Cheese
Friday, 18 February 2022, 7:59 am | Ian Powell
Recently I was strongly recommended by a friend to read a book by Michael Lewis titled The Premonition: A Pandemic Story . He reckoned it was the kind of book I would really like. I quickly bought it and his assessment was spot on. I say this ... More >>
Rights, Responsibilities, François-Marie Arouet And Far Right Agendas
Monday, 14 February 2022, 8:51 pm | Ian Powell
In 1981, although not a leader, I was an active participant in the massive protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand. South Africa was then under the tyrannical racist apartheid dictatorship responsible for the deny of fundamental ... More >>
Self-evident Health System Truths
Tuesday, 8 February 2022, 8:06 pm | Ian Powell
On 1 February BusinessDesk published an article by me on two self-evident truths in Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system. One involved the woeful neglect of workforce shortages (especially health professionals) and the other was the decision ... More >>
An Oath That Stands The Test Of Time
Saturday, 5 February 2022, 8:10 pm | Ian Powell
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of medical ethics historically taken by all doctors. It is the earliest expression of medical ethics establishing several principles which remain of paramount significance today, including confidentiality ... More >>
An Undeclared State of Emergency
Thursday, 3 February 2022, 9:19 am | Ian Powell
The Declaration of Independence initially drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted in 1776 by the 13 British colonies of what now constitutes the eastern seaboard of the United States begins with the following powerful words: "We ... More >>
Trashing New Zealand’s Pandemic Response
Thursday, 27 January 2022, 8:30 pm | Ian Powell
On 15 January BusinessDesk published my article comparing internationally the effectiveness of New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic since early 2020: Giving the world our best shot I used two main comparators – mortality rates ... More >>
