Will NZ hospitals really have to fight each other to get these funding crumbs?

If you want your funding for 0.6 of a doctor, you've got to fight. (But not if you're a property investor or cigarette corporation).

Levy + Reti just announced $42 million in extra funding for healthcare. Except it turns out its not extra funding, it’s funding that was already allocated for something else that has been shifted and diverted.

The political pressure of an austerity plan that is stuffing up NZ healthcare (ever more, and ever faster) must have finally created enough dismay among the public that these government politicians had to do something, anything, to be seen as caring. Hence, 50 new doctors. This comes out to around 0.6 of an additional doctor per public hospital facility.

What’s worse is the fact it’s ‘contestable’. Hospitals must fight amongst themselves for these crumbs. It’s the Hunger Games. But the Health NZ version.