Dr Gary Payinda is an outspoken Emergency Medical Specialist based in Northland

In this Head2Head interview he spells out why patients are waiting so long to see a doctor in our overcrowded hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of us are on waiting lists for surgery.

And what is the root cause of the problem?

Answer - a political ideology that panders to the wealthy few at the expense of the many, by cutting taxes and privatising essential services that should remain the collective responsibility of government.

For make no mistake, the agenda of the present coalition government is to privatise our public health system - and the sly way they are doing it , the speed at which they are doing it, and the impact it is having on our lives and society, is all made clear in this conversation.

But this interview is no hand- wringing excercise.

Near the end of our conversation we talk about what you and I can do to actively protest this assault on our hard- won public health system.

We have to make the invisible,visible.

So please listen to Gary’s frontline description of what is happening in our health system and stay tuned for action points, in the coming days, weeks and months that we can all take to turn this dire situation around .

You can find more of Dr Payinda’s writing here:

Head2Head is made possible thanks to the generosity of my paid subscribers. If you are receiving this post for free, please consider upgrading to paid. For $9 a month (less than a cup of coffee each week) will not only give you access to all my documentaries and premium posts, you will get to join a group of New Zealanders in our chatroom who comment on posts and discuss the issues that are important to all us who want to live in a fairer,more democratic society.

Please restack and share posts you find worthwhile as it all helps to build readership.