Rugby can be a sad sport & Medicine in New Zealand

I think the suicide rate may have increased dramatically since the New Zealand rugby team, The All Blacks, lost their chance at winning the World Cup. They lost their match Sunday morning to France in the finals. Life as Kiwis know it is over. Nothing else may be spoken of on television, radio, or in any office or public place on either the North or South Island. The mood is so grave, so solemn that it reminds me of the day Bush, the boy king, won the 2004 election. Very very sad. So sad indeed, that one of the big radio stations took the audio commentary and highlights (or is it lowlights?) from the game and createt a montage to the music of a very sad Coldplay song...I nearly peeded in my pants on the way to work.
Karl and I are not commenting on the match or mentioning that we didn't even watch. I'm hoping people include us in the category of people to emotionally effected to speak of the match.


Karl & I went to Dunedin for the weekend, which is an awesome college town with gobs of art deco architecture. We went out for cocktails in the city square and watched the insane university students running around in flipflops and miniskirts. I was wearing 4 shirts, a scarf, my overcoat, a hat, and pants with long underwear. Clearly, there is something wrong with these Southland people. Either that or Karl is right and I need to get my thyroid checked.

See the rest of our Dunedin pictures here: Dunedin Pics

Interesting new fact.

1. It is illegal to spank your children here, at all, ever ever ever. I was informed of this by a co-worker while discussing different laws. He looked at me like I had three heads when I asked him quite seriously, "But what if they deserve it?"

2. Interesting new phrases and words

• Gutted. "The kiwis are gutted they lost the rugby World Cup" "Karl and Katie will be gutted if it is cold and rainy in Auckland for their holiday this weekend."
• Jandals. Jandals are flipflops, or thongs, or slaps. "I wish it was actually warm enough to wear my Reef jandals."

Vercoe Brown & Associates Clinic

Well I've been working as a doctor in NZ now for about six weeks. I will say that the health care here is similar to the way it's done in the US in more ways than I thought it would be. I guess there is no perfect national medical environment, but I think that NZ has a good system in place. Probably better than our own.

Some of the things that are the same are as follows. Any time money is involved there will inevitably by a beurocracy. There is still a vast amount of paperwork. I figured that a national health care plan would streamline things. It doesn't. For the most part people see me under the national health plan, unless there was a specific event that caused there illness or injury, then it would be covered under the ACC (the Accident Compensation Commission), which is a different entity. There is also a way of decreasing the expense to elderly patients that come in at least four times a year through the local health council. This of course is another complication in the paperwork. Then there's private insurance. The only time I see it is with foreigners because I'm a GP. Specialists (for the most part) have national health care hours at the hospital and then have private hours in their own private clinic (where they see private insurance, ACC and out of pocket patients). Guess where they make most of their money.

I was suprized to see that it's not completely free (unless you apply to the government for disability, then they will reimburse you for your expenses, I've seen this for patients with lifelong rashes). But generally private GP's set there own price for service and are also payed by the national health insurance (sort of a rebate that may or may not be passed on to the customer). At the clinic where I currently work, Vercoe Brown and Associates, they charge $10 for children less than six years old, and $30 for everyone else. You have a ten minute appointment for this fee. You can go to the ER for free, but this generally takes more time. Also, all of your specialist appointments are free. You just have to wait one to six months to see them, depending on how urgent your referral is.

The biggest problem that faces NZ health care is that they can't keep their doctors here, they aren't paid as much as they are in other areas. It's not like any of the doctor's that Katie and I have met aren't making ends meet. For instance, Australia reciprocates NZ medical license, and you make two to four times as much for the time you spend treating patients. Guess were most NZ trained doctors are practicing...

All that being said. If you have a heart attack you'll be seen right away at the ER. If you have cancer, you will not go bankrupt from you're bills, and you're family wont be homeless after your treatment. If you have a chronic disease, most (if not all) of your medication will be covered, and you can ask the government to reimburse your GP expenses if you end up seeing them frequently. It may take a while, but if your illness calls for it, you will be seen by a specialist. Overall I think that NZ heath care is much better for the average person.