No, I'm not traveling to Mexico for a lap band, or to Bangkok for cosmetic collegen injections, or to India for a knee replacement--I'm going to New Zealand to spend three months taking part in a "roving locums" program sponsored by the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network (NZRGPN) to provide rural general practices and practioners with short term coverage to allow them to beef up staffing or take a break.
Why New Zealand? Well, aside from the renowned natural beauty of the place, they have a functioning single payer health system and I have a strong desire to experience, first-hand, how such a system really works. That's the Kiwi part of the blog title.
The second opinion portion of the heading reflects my need to reassess my career professionally and politically. In medicine, it is a time-honored tactic to obtain a second opinion if the diagnosis is unclear or if the therapy isn't working. Fresh thinking and ongoing collaboration often offer new insights and better outcomes. And for health care in the USA, a second opinion is desperately needed. While politicians argue and posture, patients are dying for lack of access to even the most basic care. Last year alone there were over 45,000 excess deaths in the US due to lack of health insurance. If over 1,000 wide-body airliners had crashed last year, we would be seeing more than political wrangling and corporate manipulation.
What will I find in New Zealand's health care system? Utopia? Bureaucratic dysfunction? Probably neither. But I do hope to see another approach to any number of questions such as:
- How do New Zealanders themselves feel about their health system?
- What do they love or hate about it?
- How would they change it?
- How is access to procedures and specialists?
- What is the approach to end-of-life care?
- Is there a problem with abuse of prescription pain killers?
- Are there class or ethnicity-based health disparities?
The specific questions are limitless, but I think a general picture will emerge. I hope to learn from these experiences, both clinically and as an advocate for reform at home.
One final note on the blogging process.Those of you who know me personally, are probably astonished to see me embracing this 21st century technology. After all, my data entry skills are notoriously 6th decade. But I can't think of a better way to communicate my experiences to my family,friends and colleagues who have already shown so much interest in what I find.
Bear with me as my skills evolve and I'll try my best both to explore this alternative health care delivery world and to come to a deeper understanding of the past and future of US healthcare.
Welcome!
