Should single rooms be the norm in hospitals?

Multi-patient rooms are the status quo for New Zealand hospitals, with up to five people staying in each room.

New research argues that this breaches safety and ethical concerns, saying that single patient rooms should be the most basic standard of care.

Researcher and author Dr Cindy Towns told Kerre Woodham that while it may seem counterintuitive for single rooms to be as economical as multi-patient rooms, poor care costs money.

She says that having multiple people in one room can create more room for infection to spread, and the inability to manage the environment completely can exacerbate some conditions.

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A community service sentence ends the saga of Philip Polkinghorne.

The former Auckland eye surgeon has returned to the High Court in Auckland today – more than a month after he was acquitted of murdering his wife Pauline Hanna.

He's been sentenced to 150 hours community work after admitting to a meth charge.

The Front Page's Chelsea Daniels spoke to Kerre Woodham from the High Court at Auckland and says the possibility of a fine was discussed.

She says Justice Graham Lang didn't believe a fine would be enough to hold Polkinghorne to account, given his “healthy” financial position.

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When did parents stop wanting more for their kids? The figures out today are absolutely appalling and paint a grim future for thousands of young New Zealanders. People aged 16-24 who are on the main benefit can expect to stay there for 20.4 years. I suppose we'll take the good news where we find it – that's down from 21.3 years. But good Lord, what a miserable existence for so many young people and what a shocking waste of potential. Young beneficiaries are more likely to have lower skill levels, more casual employment arrangements and high level of employment in low paid industries.

And what the Ministry of Social Development report didn't say, because it wasn't within their purview, was that there's an army of uneducated kids coming up on the horizon. In the past decade chronic truancy has doubled in secondary schools, nearly tripled in primary schools. Another report released this week reveals more than 80,000 students missed more than three weeks of school in Term 2 this year. And where the hell will the truants end up when they finally drift away from education altogether? On a benefit.

Social Development Minister Louise Upston told the Mike Hosking Breakfast the Government is committed to getting young people into work:

“When the labour market is tight young people are disproportionately affected, but the good news is when the economy turns, they also pick up employment more quickly. We need to ensure they spend less time on welfare, that they don't get stuck there, and that we get them on track with some training, with some education and definitely with some work opportunities. That's why we've set the target to reduce the number on Jobseeker benefit by 50,000 in six years, because we know work makes such a difference to people's lives.”

It really does. So, the Government is doing what it can, community organisations are doing what they can, where are the parents in all of this? I get that life can be really, really tough, but then it always has been for a sector of the population. It was really tough for my dad, who was born in a depression work camp in a tent. He grew up in a state house and getting into a state house was like winning the lottery for his mum and dad. Getting out of the state house and into a home of his own was my dad's driving motivation. He used education to do it. He was determined that his own children would never grow up relying on the government for anything, and we didn't. Even when I was a single mum, I never took a benefit. I could work and so I did.

Education has been seen for centuries as the ticket out of poverty, and out of misery, and out of a predetermined future. You might be doing it hard. You might feel the system failed you, you have little education, you have never worked, and you struggle from day-to-day, but surely you don't want the same for your kids? All you have to do is get them to school. They'll be safe there, they'll be educated there, they will get into the custom of getting up and going to work. They'll even be fed there. And I bet if you find it hard to put them on a bus or walk them to school, if you ring the school they'll have someone who can come and collect them. You might be struggling, you might think you're worthless, you might think life is hopeless, but do not let your legacy to your kids be the same miserable existence. Listen to Education Minister Erica Stanford, who was on the Mike Hosking Breakfast last week:

“I've been very clear about the drivers of inequality, and it is poverty. In this country your means to determine your destiny. It is almost the one single factor that is the cause of that yawning gap, which is why when you turn up to school, we need to cloak you in that protective factor that is education.”

That is what so many families for hundreds of years have seen education as – a protective cloak that means they do not have to live the same life as their parents. But then that is what parents wanted – you always want your kids to do better than you have done, to be better parents, to have more options to live better lives. When the hell did parents stop wanting more for their children? So yes, the figures are grim from the Ministry of Social Development. Young people aged 16 to 24 who are on a main benefit can expect to be there for 20 years. And we have more than 80,000 kids coming up over the horizon, unskilled, uneducated, unless we change our ways and we change them now.

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It’s not just the Government who are taking a look at building consents.

Hastings District Council has been looking into a more risk-based approach to building consents, aiming to bring the costs down for both building firms and consumers.

Council CEO Nigel Bickle told Kerre Woodham that the current system was put in place with the 2004 Building Act in response to the significant damages and issues caused by leaky homes.

He said that the system was always meant to be recalibrated.

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I suppose I should have, but I had no idea that it takes, on average, 569 days for a home to be built and consented right now. Nearly two years for a home to be built and consented! A decent building company could throw up a house in three months, couldn't they? But no, because of the consenting process, 569 days in this country for a home to be built and consented. No wonder we have a shortage of homes and no wonder they're so expensive.

Now the Government wants to change that and yesterday announced plans to develop a new opt-in self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses. The scheme, which is going to have to go through a robust consultation process, features two key pillars. The first: qualified building professionals, such as plumbers, drain layers, and builders will be able to self-certify their own work for low risk builds without the need for an inspection. This brings them in line with electricians and gas fitters who can already do this, and it's something the industry has been calling for, for years.

The second pillar, according to the Government, is that businesses with a proven track record, your Jennian Homes and your GJ Gardner’s and the like who build hundreds of near identical homes a year, will be able to go through a much more streamlined consent process. At the moment, a single-storey basic home might go through ten or more separate inspections. That's beyond double, triple, quadruple handling. It is clearly too many, says Chris Penk, and the cost benefit has become unbalanced. Penk said if we want to grow the economy, lift incomes, create jobs and build more affordable, quality homes, we need a construction sector that's firing on all cylinders.

So the next piece of the pie is constructing a new self-certification scheme for trusted building professionals and accredited businesses carrying out low risk building work. The Master Builders are welcoming the change. ACT says it's a step in the right direction, even Labour is cautiously supportive. All of them say the devil will be in the detail and let's see what the safety measures are. How's it going to work? Well, the spectre of leaky homes still haunt building regulations, still make people have an abundance of caution. How can the building industry restore confidence to the sector and prove that they are perfectly capable and able to self-certify?

It was interesting hearing the Building Surveyors Institute chap David Clifton, who was on with Mike Hosking this morning; he said electricians can self-certify, there are very rarely any problems with their work, very rarely, unlike builders, he said. So does giving an industry the ability to stand on its own two feet, does giving an industry the ability to monitor itself, build a better quality of workmen? If you know that your work's going to be checked, checked and checked again, does it make you more careless? Perhaps not intentionally. Why is it that sparkies can self-certify and do good work, whereas when you've got builders who are being checked and checked again, David Clifton said that's where you find the problems.

Is being self-determining and being able to stand on your own two feet, does it actually result in fewer mistakes because there's you and only you that is responsible for the work that's being delivered? If your work is being checked by three or four different people, where does the responsibility lie? Would self-certification actually be good for the industry? I'd be very interested to hear from you and if you have been in the process of building a new home or getting a new home built, has it been 569 days? Which just seems absolutely absurd. A good move as far as you're concerned? If you've even got grudging support from Labour, that would indicate to me that they're on the right track.

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The devil will be in the details when it comes to the Government’s new building consents scheme.

The proposal would allow competent tradespeople to self-certify consents on low risk builds, and businesses with a track record on delivering bigger projects would be able to access streamlined consenting.

Pete Wolfkamp, ZB’s Resident Builder, told Kerre Woodham that it makes sense that those doing roughly the same type of low risk project over and over again should be able to monitor their own standards.

He says there are things any competent tradesperson should be able to know when it’s done right, so taking those out would free up inspectors for other projects.

To mitigate any potential issues, Wolfkamp says contractors would have to move towards having insurance.

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Almost four months to the day, on the 30th of June, headlines were trumpeting a police crackdown on boy racers. In Wellington, police issued 138 infringement notices, 19 vehicles were taken off the streets, five vehicles were seized by bailiffs because of unpaid fines, three were impounded, 11 were either pink or green stickered due to compliance issues, 420 people were breathalysed, one person was arrested, and a stolen Subaru was seized. From one boy racer gathering in Wellington.

On that same weekend in Canterbury, 171 infringement notices were issued, 33 vehicles were pink or green sticker due to safety issues, seven people arrested for disorderly behaviour, four people summoned for excess breath alcohol, one person had their license suspended, six vehicles were impounded. Four were seized by bailiffs for failing to pay fines.

And again, on the same weekend, Bay of Plenty police issued 163 infringement notices for vehicles impounded, 14 green stickers issued ordering vehicles off the road, three people arrested, seven summonsed for driving with excess breath alcohol, one person's license suspended.

So a big crackdown. Cut to this morning and one of the big stories of Labour weekend was a nasty gathering of boy racers in Wairarapa. Boy racers who hurled fireworks, bottles, and rocks at police on Sunday night are now facing a range of charges. The operation ended with violence when officers were confronted by a large and aggressive group on Waingawa Road near Masterton.

Masterton Mayor Gary Cafell is calling not just for the book to be thrown at anti-social boy racers, but its spectators too. He told Tim Beveridge yesterday that spectators are there, seemingly in support of those who are causing the anti-social behaviour, he said, I know they're creating a problem for police, maybe they need to be looked at as well because they're basically complicit in what's being done. And they are. I know that Mark Mitchell and Simeon Brown are trying to look at beefing up laws surrounding boy racers and maybe they will look at spectators as well, because without the spectators there wouldn't be the gatherings. It's basically a game of whack-a-mole.

You saw what happened in June - you get a large contingent of police officers who direct their efforts and their attention onto boy racers, and they go in there and they pick up law breakers. You cannot say that they're hassling legitimate car enthusiasts when you look at the excess breath alcohol, when you look at the violence, when you look at the failure to pay fines, when you look at the infringement notices, when you look at the non-compliance of the vehicles themselves.

There are always two schools of thought: ‘Ah, come on, we all did it. They're just young lads letting off a bit of steam. It's so bloody boring in these small towns and they love their cars and they spend a lot of money on their cars and they just want to show them off and we all grow out of it. I'm an old boy racer and I still love my cars.’ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's the other school of thought that they're dangerous oiks, they don't care anything about the safety of others, they don't care about the property rights of others, they don't care that we're trying to get some sleep, they should be hung, drawn and quartered in the town square, they should be shot.

And I think somewhere there's a happy medium in that. They're law breakers – you don't have a non-compliant car if you're a car enthusiast. You want to show off your car, you want to make sure that it's road worthy and that it's safe.

I've heard every excuse under the sun from boy racers. It's not fair. They (other people) should build us a burnout pad. Well, you spend enough on your cars, why don't you do it yourself? Why don't you pay to see just how good you are and go round a track? Got enough money for your cars, got enough money for the hideous RTDs that are littered all over the road after you've been there, you should have enough money for an entry fee to see just how good you are against real drivers.

We have a fine history of motor sport in this country. We also have a less salubrious history of entitled oiks who see it as some sort of game. Not too dangerous because they don't want to risk everything, gives them a bit of a thrill to go up against the cops. But I don't really know what the police can do. They can direct all their attentions and all their efforts over a weekend, and they can certainly get their arrests, and they can certainly disrupt them for a while, but again, like Whack-a mole, up they pop. Another district, another weekend.

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