Ozempic makes its NZ debut
Professor of public health Grant Scofield joins Emile Donovan to discuss the effectiveness of these drugs and whether the funding settings are right - with a month of Wegovy estimated to cost $450 to $600 per month.
Weight loss medication Wegovy will be available in New Zealand from July.
Photo:
THOM LEACH / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA / TLE / Science Photo Library via AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
22 minutes ago
- RNZ News
North Shore Hospital has entire ward of people with no medical reason to be there
North Shore Hospital. Photo: rafaelbenari/123RF North Shore Hospital has an entire ward of people stuck in hospital with no medical reason to be there. The 20-bed ward was created in May for patients who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care, such as an aged care facility. RNZ understands they were not under the direct care of doctors, but were looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers. Some were there for weeks. Health NZ's Waitematā operations director Brad Healey said started the dedicated ward to help boost capacity in the busy winter period. It had helped improve the flow of patients because people were spending less time in emergency departments and were getting the care they needed sooner, he said. Deborah Powell heads the APEX Union, which includes allied health workers. It was not unusual for the patients to be in the ward for two or three weeks, but sometimes it was longer, she said. It was not ideal but it was a good, practical decision to have them in one place rather than dotted around the hospital, she said. "It would be better to have them in the community but we just don't have that capacity out there at the moment." The head of the senior doctor's union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Sarah Dalton, said it was not good for people to be in hospital when they did not need to be. "You're much better off to be in the community where you can be dressed and walking around and doing your daily things and doing exercise and getting rehab and all of those good things," she said. Having people stuck in hospital, also helped create longer surgical waiting lists, she said. "One of the biggest contributors to cancellations of elective surgeries in hospitals is that there aren't enough staffed beds to put the patients in after their surgery." "It has a domino effect back through the hospital in terms of other people's ability to access care." The government needed to do more to fund public aged residential care and also support services that allowed people to go back to their own homes, rather than the "last resort" of having to stay in hospital, Dalton said. Association of Salaried Medical Specialists chief executive Sarah Dalton. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Health NZ's Brad Healey said each patient in the ward had a "responsible medical clinician" and could access medical care if their condition changed and a further medical assessment was needed. "The patients have complex discharge pathways, requiring specialist nursing and allied health workforces," he said. Those teams worked closely with the patients and their whānau to get the discharge support they needed, he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Russian adoptee's PTSD claim denied by ACC over residency rules
By Shannon Pitman, Open Justice reporter of The young man began to suffer PTSD brought on by abuse he suffered as a child in Russia. Photo: Unsplash A Russian child who was adopted by New Zealanders and suffered physical abuse in his home country has had his claim for PTSD as an adult declined. Despite a High Court and District Court ruling that the man was eligible for mental health cover, the Court of Appeal overturned their rulings, stating he was not entitled to cover for a mental injury, because the physical assault occurred when he was not a New Zealand resident. The man, whose name is suppressed, was born in Russia in August 2001 and arrived in New Zealand as a three-year-old. Twenty years later, while living here as a New Zealand citizen, he was diagnosed with PTSD, stemming from abuse he suffered before arriving. ACC declined his claim for mental injury cover, stating the physical injury had occurred when he was not a New Zealand resident and therefore he was not entitled to compensation. Under the Accident Compensation Act 2001, for mental injury to be covered, it must arise out of a physical injury, or be caused by certain criminal acts or a workplace incident. The man challenged ACC's decision, which was overturned by the District Court and - on appeal from ACC - the High Court, which found his mental injury was suffered in New Zealand and therefore he was eligible for cover. ACC took the case to the Court of Appeal, which had the task of determining where the physical injury occurred that triggered the mental injury. The man's lawyers, Beatrix Woodhouse and Mathew McKillop, argued the PTSD diagnosis in 2019 marked the point at which the mental injury was suffered, and because he was living in New Zealand, this qualified him for cover. The lawyers submitted that, although the act specified a physical injury must match the mental injury, it did not specify a location. The Court of Appeal determined that how the personal injury was caused was critical. "Causation is the primary consideration," the court said in its recently released decision. "A mental injury which has arisen because of a physical injury may well be latent - the date the mental injury is triggered or the symptoms manifest is no doubt dependent on a variety of circumstances," . "But it is the physical injury which is the root of the mental injury. It is therefore the date and, in our view, the location of that physical injury which is the key to whether cover is available under the Act." New Zealand's Court of Appeal is the last avenue to appeal ACC decisions. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King The Court of Appeal determined the High Court and District Court erred in their decision-making, as the man was not a resident of New Zealand at the time of the abuse and, therefore, was not covered for ACC. "The Act cannot be interpreted as intending to provide cover for injuries caused overseas to people who are not ordinarily resident in New Zealand. Such an approach would mean the scheme was required to fund the consequences of events outside its jurisdiction and over which it could have no influence. "In our view, it is clear that Parliament intended to provide cover for mental injuries suffered because of physical injuries where the causative physical injuries occurred in New Zealand or, if suffered outside New Zealand, when the person was ordinarily resident in New Zealand when the cause occurred." The parents of the man released a statement to NZME to the effect that they believed the decision was deeply unfair to their son. "He is a New Zealander, adopted by New Zealanders under New Zealand law, and has known no other home," the statement said. "The Adoption Act is clear that an adoptee is to be treated as our natural-born child in every respect. "Yet, due to an injury that occurred before his adoption, he is now denied ACC-funded treatment for a condition that only manifested later in life." Their lawyer, Beatrix Woodhouse, said the Court of Appeal was the end of the road for all ACC claims. "Therefore, this decision represents the definitive legal position on this issue," she said. "It sets a precedent for other cases with comparable facts." ACC deputy chief executive for corporate and finance Stewart McRobie told NZME the organisation was seeking clarification of the law and acknowledged the Court of Appeal's decision. "We also acknowledge the impact of the decision on the claimant, and empathise with them and their family." * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Cyclones linked to surge in cardiovascular disease, study finds
Photo: 123rf Researchers have found that cardiovascular hospitalisations rise after tropical cyclones. Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne and Otago University assessed hospital data from Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam from 2000-19, as well as recorded data from 124 cyclones. They found hospitalisations for cardiovascular disease (CVD) tend to rise, with this rate peaking at 2 months after the event, and the increase lingered up to 6 months after a tropical cyclone. The team also looked at variables, including sex, age, socioeconomic status and geographic location. Results showed a statistically significant and prolonged association between cyclones and CVD hospitalisation for people of all sexes aged 20-59. The team also evaluated six different types of CVD based on hospital diagnostic codes - heart failure, ischemic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, heart rhythm disturbances, peripheral vascular diseases and stroke. Ischemic heart diseases and stroke were the two most common subsets of cyclone-associated CVD, and the latter was especially common in males of all ages. Areas with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation had higher rates of cyclone-associated CVD hospitalisations, but the opposite was the case in areas with stronger socioeconomic advantages. "The study demonstrates that, as well as directly causing immediate deaths and injuries, extreme climate events can have important indirect health impacts over following months," said Professor Simon Hales, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago and one of the study's authors. "These delayed, indirect health impacts are due to infrastructure damage and disruption to livelihoods in the aftermath of major storms. "It is important to understand these health effects and mechanisms in more detail in order to design adaptive responses, as well as to motivate climate mitigation measures. "Cyclones, storms and heavy rainfall events are projected to become more frequent, unless stronger efforts are made to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases," he said. Associate Professor George Laking - executive board member of OraTaiao, the New Zealand Climate and Health Council - said similar work was done after Cyclone Gabrielle for populations in Tai Rāwhiti and Hawke's Bay. "We weren't able to detect that signal in our own project. I think that is explained by the smaller populations we studied. "In this report, there is a higher level of uncertainty in the New Zealand country-specific data. I think this represents our overall smaller population. "Interestingly, the strongest signal in New Zealand was for the north of the South Island, not so strong for the East Coast North Island regions we studied." Laking said he had waited for this study, showing the adverse interaction of cyclones and cardiovascular health. "Under climate change, we have to expect an increased incidence and severity of adverse weather events. That is a consequence of the greater amount of energy and water in the atmosphere. "These incredibly destructive events are adverse for human health in all sorts of ways." Laking said climate change had been identified as the No.1 risk to human health this century. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
