Letters: The callous past treatment of single mothers; ignorant patients demanding doctor ethnicity

Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.
When Joss Shawyer was expecting twins in 1969 she came under pressure to agree to give them up for adoption because she was a single mother. She fought back and helped hundreds of other single mothers raise their children themselves. Photo / Supplied
Callous treatment of single mothers
It’s difficult to understand, and difficult to forgive, the callous treatment single mothers were subjected to in the past (Weekend Herald, Oct 5).

What was deemed benevolent charity in saving children born to single women was self-righteous ignorance coupled
with systemic cruelty that may well have destroyed a generation.

Joss Shawyer’s activism and bravery are to be commended, and without her unstinting battle to change circumscribed and judgmental opinions of the time, many more families could have been torn apart.
Equally disturbing are the mealy-mouthed apologies given by the various institutions who meted out such cruel punishment, and who undoubtedly would have branded single mothers with a Scarlet Letter had they been allowed to do so.
What a shame they didn’t cast an equally censorious eye over the fathers of those children. An apology rings hollow when it comes with justifications pointing to the narrow conventions of that time and does nothing to mitigate the trauma these women and their children suffered.
Without official recognition and meaningful inclusion in the abuse in care report, particularly the role hospitals played, an entire generation of women and children will become a sad afterthought in history. They deserve better.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Ignorant patients
Why are there so many ignorant people in NZ.
Given that our health system is in crisis, it has not prevented patients demanding the ethnicity of medical staff they choose to treat them (Weekend Herald, Oct 5).
The NZ hospital service is free to all and patients who deem it their right to choose the ethnicity/gender of the person treating them should take themselves off to private care and pay for the privilege.
Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ is wrong in stating that these extremely hard-working medical professionals should add to the stress of their job by requiring them to educate the demanding ignorant patients. Their job is patient care of the highest standard, not educating the ignorant.
I cannot imagine how demeaning it must be for a young doctor or nurse to be racially attacked by patients.
Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
Lobby-led
I did not realise that this Government would be so controlled by lobby groups.
We had a very good tobacco law that would reduce children starting smoking, the tobacco lobby soon got rid of that and even managed tax relief on one of their deadly products. Must maintain a supply of addicts.
Next we had ferries that had the ability to get more heavy containers off the road and on to trains. They were immediately cancelled. The trucking lobby soon saw that off.
Then the landlords’ lobby got the tax reductions reinstated for their interest payments. And that encouragement for more EV cars had to go and also the regional fuel tax. Well done the oil lobby.
I am intrigued now to see how successful the gun lobby is through their Act representative.
Vince West, Milford.
History repeats
Gumboot Friday smells of roses compared to the irresistibly alluring scent of “lobby” odour surrounding the lack of scrutiny, transparency and expert analysis applied to Minister Casey Costello’s $230 million spend on heated tobacco products excise tax cuts.
She assures us she is squeaky clean, despite no paper trail of advice, universal disgust and horror by health experts – and a gaping lack of research to justify this spend.
Why is it so easy for ministers to spend $230m but $24m on Gumboot Friday is scrutinised in minutiae? Christopher Luxon appears to have given Costello carte blanche. Another example of a coalition agreement trumping expert opinion and analysis: a classic case of penny wise and pound foolish?
It actually potentially signals the sinister stranglehold lobbyists hold using our kids as pawns in their drug deals empowering coalition decisions.
Judith Collins gave the alcohol industry power to decide on alcopops and later their lawyers determined the future of local alcohol policies (LAPs) which were thwarted for over 10 years.
Is history repeating itself over smoke-free? Lobby money is a must-have and big tobacco and alcohol have heaps – so alluring for small bit parties.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
Supporting vulnerable
I applaud the Government taking steps to ensure the financial deficit is reduced but it cannot, and should not, cut services where vulnerable groups are affected.
The right has a strong business focus on economic growth, it acknowledges and looks for savings in wasteful spending but cuts to groups who help those in need must be exempt. These groups which help the vulnerable, tirelessly and on a shoestring budget actually prevent crisis; crisis which ends up in the emergency department, in the courts, or prison.
None of these alternatives are helpful for our most vulnerable, nor does it save any money in the long run. So my plea to the Government is support our vulnerable without prejudice and the returns will save money in the long term.
John Ford, Taradale.
Nurse numbers
Reporter Isaac Davison considered “How Health NZ’s budget blew out” with the board asserting “the main driver of its financial position was an overspend on nurses” (NZ Herald, Oct 9). This answer needs unpicking.
Each Minister of Health (two Labour, one National) I worked with asked, “have we a nursing shortage?”. Hard to answer given health boards counted vacancies differently, with none confessing shortages.
This was the wrong question, the truth being how many nurses we are prepared to employ. International evidence describes numbers of qualified nurses required to guarantee good care, and conversely the adverse consequences of not enough. The consequential cost is likely higher than employing nurses – that can gets kicked down the line.
The board’s answer was likely correct given nursing budgets available. The honest answer is the government hasn’t calculated nursing numbers for safe and effective care, stumping up dollars for that, or alternatively the maths is done and despite proven benefit decisions made not to fund a workforce the size and quality Kiwis deserve.
Honesty time – this is the number of nurses we need; this is what we can afford/be bothered to buy. Any cost blowout is due to underfunding of nurses actually required.
Dr Mark Jones, Albany.
Inquest lag
Would someone please explain why it took five years to report the findings following the tragic events that claimed the life of Sophia Crestani?
Wouldn’t the lessons learnt have been of more value much earlier, say four years ago? Surely investigative and legal processes need speeding up, at least by the setting of tight initial deadlines.
The perfect investigation and legal process would take infinite time. It is likely that 80% of the value is available in the first 20% of time. Is there not some way to speed things up while still acknowledging the complexities and sensitivities involved?
Otago University could then have been “working through those recommendations” much earlier.
David Hopkins, Remuera.
Maybe Mayor Wayne Brown needs to look at the excessive cost of traffic management in Auckland. We had a local road turned into a one-way system for three days while Vector worked on a power pole on a grass verge. My observations of the traffic management crew (and there were numerous of them) with their trucks was they were on their phones the whole day as our roads are very quiet and there were no traffic issues. Auckland Transport obviously thinks we can’t follow signs and use our common sense to give way to what little traffic was using the road.
Lesley Baillie, Milford.
Isn’t it about time that Auckland Transport leads by example and gets its enforcement staff to go about their daily business by public transport? Or is the amount of branded AT vehicles I see driving around proof that cars really are the best way to get around Auckland?
Tim Edwards, Hobsonville.
On October 9 I received in my PO Box a letter from NZ Post, dated April 8, 2024. This advised me of changes to delivery service to our rural post box as of June 29, 2024. The changes were necessary “to remain commercially viable and to continue to provide a valuable delivery service”. It took six months for this letter to arrive. And they wonder why people are no longer using their service.
Sandra Croft, Leigh.
You might think that the Government is opposed to welfare, but think again. First there was welfare for landlords, then for the gun lobby, for profit charter schools, the tobacco industry and now, possibly the most deserving of all, property developers.
So, the next time you wait for 12 hours at A&E – as I did recently – don’t bemoan the lack of funding for health, but rather rejoice that public money, yours and mine, will be used to bail out these poor, downtrodden developers. This is a government that knows where its priorities lie.
Keith L Muir, Mount Maunganui.
The reintroduction of the Tui billboards is a welcome return of this iconic piece of advertising on the Kiwi landscape. It is clever, controversial and obviously effective as everyone seems to know about the catchphrase. Surely any advertiser and its client would want the kind of the response it engenders. Yeah, absolutely!
Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.
If the police want to catch Tom Phillips, might I suggest they offer the job to the TV reality show Hunted. They seem to be able to find people on a 7.7 million km2 continent, so the west coast of the North Island should be a doodle.
CC McDowall, Rotorua.
It seems that barely a day goes by when we do not hear something about Nicole McKee and/or Casey Costello. Both have limited experience as MP’s yet both are in Cabinet. Both are members of minority parties. Both are pursuing policies for which the evidence is, to say the least, questionable. Both are being backed by the Prime Minister. One does not have to be naïve to question if Mr Luxon’s support is based on a fear of damaging or destroying the coalition.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
Will the court of inquiry into the sinking of HMNZS Manawanui find a link between the management of the New Zealand Royal Navy and that of the Cook Strait ferries?
Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.
Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.