{"id":611185,"date":"2026-09-25T08:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611185\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:20:09","slug":"health-experts-issue-six-prescriptions-for-our-struggling-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611185\/","title":{"rendered":"Health experts issue six prescriptions for our struggling system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Putting people at the heart of healthcare was the collective message from University of Otago \u2013 \u014ct\u0101kou Whakaihu Waka researchers at a panel event, \u2018Fixing the Health of our Nation<\/a>\u2019, on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people tuned in to the discussion to hear the panel share what they thought would make the biggest difference to the health of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Health Sciences associate professor Megan Gibbons, who chaired the event, summed it up when she said \u201cWe are really talking about people \u2013 the people who use the health system, the people who work in the health system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Enabling people through appropriate access, connecting them through relationships and communities, and supporting them to lead healthy lives, were at the heart of the messages shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth is always an election issue and this year is no different \u2013 we have a health workforce that is exhausted and stretched, our research funding has not increased for a number of years, and unless we think differently, we will not progress \u2013 we need innovation and expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

See what each of the Otago experts had to say below.<\/p>\n

Primary care is the doorway to our healthcare system<\/p>\n

Professor Peter Crampton, professor of public health, has a research focus on social indicators and social epidemiology, health care policy, and health care organisation and funding.<\/p>\n

He homes in on primary care, describing it as the doorway to our healthcare system.<\/p>\n

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However, for a variety of reasons, he says that door isn\u2019t open to everyone. He believes we need to have a focus on wellness; keep primary care local and connected; and enable fairer access to more equitable outcomes.<\/p>\n

Action on cancer<\/p>\n

Professor Louise Signal, director of Otago\u2019s Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit and co-director of Te R\u014dp\u016b Rangahau \u014d Te K\u0101hui Matepukupuku: Cancer Society Research Collaboration, focuses her research on identifying and addressing environmental determinants of health.<\/p>\n

Drawing on a national survey of more than 1600 New Zealand adults, she outlines how there is strong, often overwhelming, cross-party public support for action on cancer.<\/p>\n

Adequate treatment<\/p>\n

Distinguished professor Richard Porter, director of the Mental Health Clinical Research Unit and a consultant psychiatrist, covers the issue of severe mental illness.<\/p>\n

He says specialist services are needed to deal with the very severe episodes, frequent relapse, and significant problems with cognitive function that often come with severe mental illness.<\/p>\n

However, longer-term evidence-based treatments are not available in Aotearoa New Zealand because of poor staffing, lack of training and lack of research funding. He says all of these, if addressed, would provide significantly better outcomes for individuals and, ultimately, for society.<\/p>\n

Investing in pharmacy<\/p>\n

Dr Amber Young (Taranaki), teaches on clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice skills; her research focuses on health equity, maternal vaccination, and quality use of medicines.<\/p>\n

She covers how pharmacists have the skills to contribute more to health and wellbeing, and the ability to meet the needs of the community where they are.<\/p>\n

Pharmacist services are expanding globally and there are plenty of models New Zealand could follow.<\/p>\n

Come as a family, get seen as a family<\/p>\n

Professor Jonathan Broadbent, professor of dental public health, has special interests in dental longitudinal research and inequalities in dental health.<\/p>\n

He focuses on Good Oral Health for All, for Life, New Zealand\u2019s national oral health strategic vision, which turns 20 this month.<\/p>\n

He believes its implementation has had unintended consequences and left unfinished business which need to be addressed, such as the dental health of young adults.<\/p>\n

Counting what counts<\/p>\n

Professor Tim Wilkinson, consultant physician in geriatric medicine, questioned whether health professionals are measuring what matters most to patients and how recovery can be supported without inadvertently creating dependence.<\/p>\n

He ultimately asked what would change if independence became considered as a national health outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Putting people at the heart of healthcare was the collective message from University of Otago \u2013 \u014ct\u0101kou Whakaihu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-611185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}