Nine To Noon for Friday 4 September 2020

 

 

09:05 New Christchurch ED observation ward cannot open due to budget cuts

Christchurch hospital's newly built emergency department observation ward will not be able to open because the DHB cannot staff it, according to senior ED clinicians, who say this could result in more hospital admission and ultimately cuts in planned care. The Canterbury DHB is facing a crisis as $56 million is trimmed from its budget in order to reduce its deficit. The issue has prompted the resignation of seven of 11 in the senior leadership group - including Chief Executive David Meates, whose last day in the role is today. The board chair, Sir John Hansen,  and Crown Monitor Dr Lester Levy, both promised last month there would be no cuts to services. Kathryn speaks with Dr Scott Pearson, Senior Emergency Physician at Canterbury DHB,  and Christchurch GP and Otago University Professor of General Practice, Dr Les Toop who fears the cuts will affect the care of patients in the community.

09:20 On the fence about who to vote for? 

On the Fence is an online tool created by Massey University to help young voters decide who to vote for. It matches personal values with political parties, and is said to have increased youth voter turnout in the last two elections. On the Fence was created by The Design+Democracy Project, which has also made Cannabis Convo - a different website designed to help people make up their minds on the upcoming referendum on cannabis. Project director and senior lecturer Karl Kane joins Kathryn Ryan to explain. 

09:30 The New Zealand Fossil Record Files

Preserving biodiversity is one of the key challenges of our time, so it's good to know that New Zealand has a unique global advantage. We are the only country in the world with a complete 100% fossil record. This unrivalled database of New Zealand taxonomy and that of its surrounding area (including Antarctica), started out as a paper based archive in the 1940s. Professor of Geology, James Crampton, says the Fossil Record Files are essentially a whakapapa of our biological history, allowing us to ask and answer questions about our flora and fauna that no else on the planet can do.

09:45 Asia correspondent Elizabeth Beattie

The latest on the Japan Coastguard's search for a missing cattle export ship. The Gulf Livestock 1 has  43 people onboard, including two New Zealanders and two Australians. One survivor has been plucked from the sea after the ship capsized in a typhoon.

Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist at Thomson Reuters, based in Hong Kong.

10:05 The Language of Butterflies

Author and science journalist Wendy Williams has published a new book celebrating one of the world's most beautiful and resilient animals.  The Language of Butterflies investigates butterflies around the world, their habitats, those who study them, and the lengths to which some butterfly seekers - or lepidopterists - will go. Wendy Williams is the author of seven books of non fiction including the award winning bestseller The Horse: The Epic History of Our Nobel Companion.

10:35 Book review - The Doctor Who Fooled the World by Brian Deer

Tilly Lloyd from Unity Books reviews The Doctor Who Fooled the World by Brian Deer, published by Scribe.

 Award-winning investigative journalist Brian Deer reveals the shocking truth behind the rise of Andrew Wakefield, a research doctor at a London medical school, who in February 1998 published explosive research claiming that the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine given to millions of children caused autism, causing fear and a major plummet in immunisation rates.

Brian Deer's landmark fifteen-year inquiry for The Sunday Times, Channel 4 and the British Medical Journal exposed the truth behind the now-ex-doctor's campaign: seeing him struck from the medical register, his research retracted, and his claims dubbed 'an elaborate fraud'. But today Wakefield is back: leading an international anti-vaccine crusade.

10:45 The Reading

Susy Pointon's Hard Up (New Zealand) Limited, told by Aaron Alexander. Episode 5 of 10.

11:05 New music with Jeremy Taylor

Utterly immersed in Bob Stanley's 'poptimistic' and weighty tome on the history of pop music, Jeremy Taylor attempts to traverse 40 years of hit-making in just 6 songs.

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

In this week’s sporting wrap up, Sam Ackerman looks at the comings and goings in high level coaching positions, a sliding doors moment for two household names and the North versus South rugby match is finally happening - does anybody care?.

11:45 The week that was with

Comedians Te Radar and Donna Brookbanks will some laughs to end the week.