Watch: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon makes pre-Budget health annoucnement
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown are making a pre-Budget health announcement.
It comes ahead of Thursday's Budget, as the health system groans under the strain of striking doctors, cuts to after-hours services and long wait times for elective surgeries..
They are expected to speak shortly after 1pm.
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Hospice services are only available to one in three New Zealanders who are dying. File photo. Photo: 123RF Hospices are warning that critical services for the dying are under threat, with nothing for palliative care providers in the Budget. Hospice NZ says government funding only covers about half of what it costs to run New Zealand's 28 publicly funded hospices, but if services collapse, it will end up costing taxpayers millions of dollars more. Jen Nolan, whose younger brother Matt died at Te Omanga Hospice in Lower Hutt in 2019, said she dreaded to think how those final days would have gone without that "incredible, wrap-around care". The weeks following Matt Nolan's diagnosis with stage four melanoma were brutal: brain surgery, radiation, immunotherapy - nothing worked. It was a devastating blow when doctors said there was nothing more they could do - but Matt Nolan's admission to Te Omanga offered a different kind of healing. "When we walked in, I turned to one of my sisters and said 'God, it's like we've left Hell and we're in Heaven's waiting room'." Her brother's seizures and complex pain needs made it impossible for him to be at home, but Te Omanga became their home. "We could come and we could bring our dogs, he had a lovely room that opened out to the garden. His friends could come. "I walked in one day, and there he was, fast asleep, with two of his buddies also asleep in chairs. They were having a little nap together." Matt Nolan died in July 2019, three months after diagnosis. He had just turned 49. Six years on, Jen Nolan said it was heartbreaking that hospice services were only available to one in three New Zealanders who were dying. "If you face the death of a loved one, and you haven't got the option to go into hospice care, I think that would be a bloody grim place to be. "It was the most supportive and gentle place for us all to be with him. The care he received was outstanding. 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"The alternative is that hospices have to make some staff redundant so that they can increase the salaries of other staff, and that leads to a reduction in services." Health Minister Simeon Brown told RNZ the government "values the work of hospices", but he said it was up to Health NZ to do its own negotiations with providers. "This Budget has provided $1.37b to Health NZ to not only deliver an increase in investment for those front-line hospital and specialist services, but also an uplift in investment to that funded sector, which includes primary care, which includes aged care, which includes palliative care." However, Naylor was not optimistic following meetings with Health NZ officials, the most recent one this week. "They told us they had no more funding, that they have no contingency that they can call upon, and the people with whom we met said they had no authority to allocate funding from anywhere else. "So essentially it's a no to funding from Health NZ right now." Assisted dying services receive about $11m a year from Health NZ, in order to ensure equitable access. "Which is fine for the fewer than 1 percent of people who seek it," Naylor said. "But for the 99 percent of people who die from an expected illness, only about a third can access hospice care. So there still remains that inequity that needs to be addressed." For dying children, access to specialist palliative care services were even worse . A recent MartinJenkins report found New Zealand's 28 publicly-funded hospices are returning at least $1.59 in health benefits for every dollar of taxpayer money received, including fewer ED and hospital admissions or rest home stays. Add to that the clinical services they directly fund themselves, the public benefit is even higher. Most patients under hospice care are able to stay in their own homes, with brief admissions to hospice for respite or to adjust pain medication. Nelson-Tasman Hospice nurse Donna Burnett loves her work, which is why she has stayed in the job for 36 years. However, the Nurses Organisation delegate said that good-will was being taken for granted by the government, and the end result for many was "burnout". "We can't keep giving the way we are. "Often we're short-staffed. We keep that patient centred care going, but it's coming at a cost. "We can't keep giving like we are and working understaffed because that has an impact on your wellbeing." In a written response to RNZ, Health NZ said it would shortly begin seeking feedback from the public and the sector on a model of care proposal for adult palliative care. It plans to finalise both the paediatric and adult models of care by the end of the year. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Power of rongoā Māori: Rangatahi-led project explores health benefits of kūmara vines
Darius Martin-Baker stumbled on the idea while trying to cure a stomach issue. Photo: Supplied Inspired by mātauranga Māori and rongoā, a young entrepreneur is turning kūmara waste into wellness through a groundbreaking new research project. Twenty-one-year-old Darius Martin-Baker (Ngāpuhi, Waimā, Ngāwhā) is the driving force behind the kaupapa. With $70,000 from the Bioresource Processing Alliance, he has partnered with Callaghan Innovation scientists to explore the nutritional potential of kūmara vines - the leafy part of the plant often chucked during harvest. Martin-Baker said the idea for the kaupapa sparked while staying with his older sister - a longtime practitioner of rongoā Māori - when he began digging deeper into traditional plant knowledge in search of a cure for a stomach issue. "I was reading through rongoā books, but I was getting quite hōhā, because I was like 'no koromiko'," he said. "You have a little bit, it stops you from having the runs, but you have too much, it causes it. "I was, like, definitely can't be using that, because if John down the road decides to have three scoops instead of one, I don't want to be blamed for exacerbating any problems." Then he looked up and saw his sister sprouting a kūmara on the windowsill. "I was, like, 'Why? You're not growing it,' and she was like, 'It looks pretty, but also, it's a rongoā.'" "I was, like, 'Is this a tūpuna-aligned moment?'" Darius Martin-Baker began to research the medicinal use of kūmara vines. Photo: Supplied That moment led him into deeper research, where he found a range of references to the medicinal uses of kūmara in old rongoā books. "I was, like, 'Okay, if we know as Māori and our mātauranga that there's positive benefits to eating kūmara, then what does Western science say about it?'" Martin-Baker came across a study from the University of Arkansas, which found kūmara vines contained anti-carcinogenic, anti-cardiovascular disease and anti-diabetic properties. "It was definitely one of those 'cue the angel music and an epiphany pops out' moments." Nearly 200,000 tonnes of kūmara vines go unused each year. Photo: Supplied According to the Bioresource Processing Alliance, nearly 200,000 tonnes of kūmara vines go unused in Aotearoa each year. Martin-Baker's goal is to unlock their potential, and create a product that could support people living with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, while also serving as a daily health supplement. "Kūmara vine has been used by tangata whenua, since the plant was first grown in Aotearoa," he said. "This will be the first research project to investigate and hopefully commercialise the health properties of the vine." Callagahan Innovation senior researcher Jolin Morel. Photo: Supplied One of the several scientists helping bring that vision to life is Jolin Morel, a senior researcher at Callaghan Innovation's food processing technology team. "It's great to have someone like [Darius], who is really trying to build on something that's been traditionally used, but isn't really well utilised now," he said. According to Morel, kūmara vines are rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenols and other phenolic antioxidants, which are associated with anti-inflammatory and disease-fighting properties. "We're looking at how can we create products where these compounds are enriched." They are exploring ways to develop a kūmara vine extract that's high in phenolics - something Morel said, "could be a powerful addition to a protein drink or similar supplement". "We're looking at scalable ways to process them, to make them into shelf-stable products that still retain the good properties of the vine." Morel said, while Callaghan leads the mahi around processing and scale-up, Plant & Food Research is investigating the plant's bioactive compounds - known as phytochemicals - that give the vine its potential health benefits. "There are a few different parts to the project - from creating product concepts to understanding the science behind the rongoā." Most of the vines used so far have been grown in Kaipara. Photo: Supplied / Darius Martin-Baker Martin-Baker said learning under his sister's mātauranga had grounded the kaupapa in tikanga, something he was committed to embedding throughout the entire project, starting from the way the kūmara vines were harvested. "Following tikanga in picking practice is really important, so ensuring that there's alignment with Maramataka, but also just ensuring karakia," he said. "Unfortunately, sometimes the harvest of the rau might not line up with the phase of the moon, so most of the time, it's just about giving karakia to all the different ātua that are in that area." All the kūmara vines gathered so far have been sourced from Kaipara - one of the country's main kūmara-growing rohe. "Acknowledging the hapū and iwi there and doing karakia in those moments" would remain central to the kaupapa, especially when the product enters the formulation and production stage, Martin-Baker said. "Before we get into the actual production of it, doing karakia and following tikanga in that regard is going to be the point of utmost importance." He also hoped that any future website or packaging would honour the whakapapa of the kūmara vine and its wider mātauranga lineage. "I'll ensure that there's acknowledgments to ngā tūpuna o ngā ātua to ensure that those that have come before all of us, that have helped us build up this intergenerational knowledge, are acknowledged for that development and that gift to the rest of us." Darius Martin-Baker has drawn from his Māori and Pākehā roots. Photo: Supplied / Darius Martin-Baker Martin-Baker said the kaupapa felt like a reflection of his own whakapapa. "When it comes to Western sciences supporting rongoā Māori, it's a balance. It's not that one is better than the other, but it's utilising them in a woven manner - like making a kete that holds this product." "Being of Māori and Pākehā descent, it's definitely in my whakapapa to mix those two different parts of me, so it feels like this is not only a way of going about it that is tika and pono, but also, it feels like a little bit of myself." He hoped his journey would inspire more rangatahi Māori to pursue pathways in innovation, science and rongoā. "I want to see more Māori in this space - reclaiming mātauranga, creating solutions and doing it in a way that stays true to who we are." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
The McMigraine hack: does it really work?
For people living with migraine disease it can be a debilitating condition that is invisible to others. In New Zealand, 753,000 people live with migraine, affecting three times as many women than men. Dr Fiona Imlach has lived with migraine for many years, and frustrated by the lack of migraine specific care, she co-founded Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022. Dr Imlach joins Jim to discuss migraine disease, its causes, and what can help. Photo: 123RF
