Notas del episodio
Ask how long a New Zealand hospital lasts without imports and most people think about medicines. The more frightening answer is the tests.
PHARMAC funds around 3,000 medicines. Almost none are manufactured here. Tens of thousands of medical devices are registered for use; virtually all are imported. Gloves, sutures, tubing, catheters — largely imported. Surgical consumables start being rationed within weeks.
But the vulnerability that gets least attention is diagnostic reagents, which are almost entirely imported and would begin failing within months. Without them, blood testing, pathology and imaging analysis stop. Clinicians can still treat what they can see. Everything else, they're flying blind on.
We work through eight areas of the health system, and find the damage spread very unevenly — some problems manageable over years, others life-threatening inside a month.
At The End Of The World is hosted by Nic Roland and produced by Jamie Thomas. More at ateotw.com