Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

A newly approved weight loss drug could improve competition but will still be costly for patients, an obesity doctor says.

Mounjaro is a self-administered injection which received regulatory approval for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management in December last year.

It is now available by prescription in some New Zealand pharmacies.

Obesity doctor Dr Chaey Leem told Morning Report the drug targeted two hormones when Wegovy, a weight-loss medication already on the market, only targeted one.

“You can kind of think of the medication unlocking two doors instead of one in your body’s metabolism,” he said.

Leem said that increased the drug efficacy.

“At the maximum doses of Mounjaro, patients on average have lost 22 percent of the initial weight in the trail, compared to 15 percent on the maximum dose of Wegovy.”

The cost of the drug was a barrier for some patients, he said.

Mounjaro is pricier than Wegovy, ranging from $430 to nearly $900 a month.

“Competition will hopefully help improve the situation for many patients, however, in fact there still might be a long way to go,” Leem said.

“The drugs are very expensive, and I do feel for the patients who need it the most but aren’t able to afford a really great option that’s available.”

Leem said there was a lot of stigma against obesity, which he hoped could be reduced through treatment.

“Once we have the tools to fight them and treat patients, hopefully the stigma towards obesity goes down, and in turn we can look into other options like bariatric surgery, which is usually much more cost effective from a public health perspective,” he said.

Leem had patients he believed would benefit from the new medication, if price weren’t a factor.

“There’s risks and benefits to everything, but for the many, many patients, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks that the medications can impose.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than double the planned number of primary care nurses will begin advanced training this year, following strong demand for the government’s new scholarship.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government had originally committed to funding 120 primary care registered nurses each year for four years to undertake advanced education through its new Registered Nurse Primary Care scholarships, and become registered nurse prescribers – but this year, it would fund 235.

Brown said there had been a “very high level of demand”, and the extra places could be offered within existing funding.

Placements would begin from the week of 23 February.

Of those 235 – who were registered nurses already working in primary and community healthcare settings – 147 would work towards a postgraduate diploma in prescribing, and 88 would undertake a master of nursing.

Nurses who completed those qualifications could prescribe from an approved list of medicines for common and long-term conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, respiratory conditions, and menopause symptoms.

The health minister said this additional training capacity came at an important time following the recent expansion of prescribing rights announced in December.

Te Whatu Ora national chief nurse Nadine Gray said it would improve access to prescriptions for New Zealanders, with more healthcare workers able to see patients and prescribe.

She said these nurses would train at a number of universities across the country, undertaking a mixture of pharmacology post-graduate papers and completing clinical hours under supervision.

Gray said nurse prescribers could go on to become nurse practitioners, who through a masters degree, would have the ability to see, diagnose, prescribe, treat and manage patients as independent practitioners without the need for GP oversight.

“Some nurses probably applied for scholarships or funding through the old DHBs or their districts, but this is far greater than what we’ve had before,” she said.

The scholarship covered course fees and clinical supervision requirements, being released to be able to study – “it’s a real wrap-around supportive scholarship so the nurse is successful”.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland Council is hoping recent tragic dog attacks, including a fatal attack, will make the government step in and make changes.

On Tuesday, 62-year-old Mihiata Te Rore was killed by dogs while visiting a home in the Northland town of Kaihu.

Then on Saturday, three people were injured after two dogs attacked people in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.

The attacks have sparked calls for an overhaul of the Dog Control Act – with Te Rore being the fourth person killed by dogs in the past four years.

Speaking to Morning Report, Auckland Council general manager of licensing and compliance Robert Irvine said the council had been calling for change for almost a year.

The issue of roaming dogs – with a number of attacks on young kids – was “really, really bad and it just keeps on getting worse”, Irvine said.

In Auckland alone, Irvine said there were 17,000 reports of roaming dogs every year – putting the community at risk.

“We want people to be out and about, enjoying our parks, going for walks and having the fear of being attacked by a dog is not something that we want.”

The Dog Control Act was nearly 30 years old and very outdated, Irvine said.

“We’ve been calling for change on this for almost a year and the key things we are looking at is changing it to be more proactive.

“We need greater powers for those that just aren’t actually listening to the current rules. So things like getting on top of the problem, more powers around desexing – we need more dogs desexed out there and we need the dog control act to give us that power to do that.”

Irvine said the council impounded about 10,000 dogs per annum – releasing most of them – and being able to desex them before release was a power the council wanted to help control the issue of breeding.

The council also wanted the power to cease dogs if necessary. He said in one case, more than 20 dogs were found on a residential property and it had no power to take them – having to go through a “lengthy” process before it could disqualify the owner for having too many.

“Up to now, we’ve been told the changes aren’t on the government’s agenda but we’re hoping after, sadly, these tragic events that the government will now actually step in and make some changes.”

Auckland Council had upped its dog control spend by about $10 million last year – needing extra animal management officers among other initiatives – meaning its spend was now about $25m per year.

But its initiatives were not enough – and changes were needed to the Act, Irvine said.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts previously said he was seeking advice on how central government could respond to the attacks and the Dog Control Act.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Gore’s iconic statue is no longer with-trout a name

The brown trout statue has been proudly leaping in the Southland town since 1989 after being locally designed, built and fundraised.

Trevor was officially announced at the On The Fly Festival on the banks of the Mataura River on Sunday afternoon.

The Gore District Council teamed up with Hokonui FM to name the famous fish, asking for name suggestions before public voting this month – yes, Trouty McTroutface was floated.

The five finalists were Trixie, Scout, Trevor, Gordon or Finn.

But council senior events coordinator Florine Potts said Trevor was a clear winner after receiving more than a third of votes.

“People from far and wide come to Gore, come and take a photo with the trout. We see it happen every single day. Buses full of tourists stop here and they come and grab a photo and people love it and now we can all embrace Trevor the trout,” she said.

The Gore Lion’s Club gifted the statue to the town to celebrate its 25th anniversary with lots of fundraising to make it happen, she said.

“Like a celebrity cocktail party with some big names coming to Gore, a fishing race with little fish going down the Mataura River.”

Fly fishing guide Shelen Boyes was showing people how to fly fish at the festival.

There were a lot of moving parts to make the magic happen, she said.

“You’re having to not only cast a rod with a really light fly on the end of it, have accuracy, deal with the wind, deal with the elements, and then also have to pretty much hook it yourself and reel it in yourself without losing it,” she said.

“So yeah, it’s quite a lot.”

It was a great way to bring people together, was quite meditative and encouraged people to think about river health, she said.

The Mataura River was a wonderful place to take people, Boyes said.

She described the Mataura as a “gold medal, blue ribbon fishery”.

“It’s got 700 fish per kilometre. You can easily spot fish all over the river system.”

Fly fishing has been Mike Weddell’s career and passion – he has been flying fishing for more than 60 years.

He was been showing people how it was done at the festival.

“It’s a fantastic sport. What you used to see in the village back home, all the kids that fished all the time never got into trouble, except for coming home too late at night, he said.

Trevor will have an official naming ceremony later this year.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than 300 homes in Wellington are still without power a week after being hit by a southerly storm.

Wellington Electricity said the extremely gusty nature of last week’s storm appeared to have made it extra damaging, and it was taking longer than expected to restore power.

The lines company apologised to the 260 customers across Wellington and Porirua, and 70 in the Hutt Valley, who have now gone without electricity for a week.

The number was down from the approximate 700 homes on Friday that still had no power, when Wellington Electricity said it would donate $10 to KidsCan Charitable Trust for every customer who wouldn’t be reconnected that day.

Have you been affected? Get in touch at: hamish.cardwell@rnz.co.nz

Wellington Electricity chief executive Greg Skelton said the sheer scale of the damage that fallen trees and windblown branches have caused meant they were behind schedule.

“From initial assessments we thought we were going to get power restored in the Hutt Valley on Saturday evening.

“However, in many jobs we discovered greater damage than we could initially see after trees were cleared and sites made safe to work at. It’s been very frustrating. As of this morning there are about 70 customers still without power in the Hutt Valley. We expect to get power restored to them today.”

He said power should be restored to the 260 homes across Wellington and Porirua by Tuesday night.

Some repairs would be temporary, requiring further work.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Barkers jam maker is already in trouble with its neighbours over stinky wastewater ponds, and now it wants to dump the waste onto DOC land.

With the backdrop of the Southern Alps and a pristine river running by the famous jam-maker, Barker’s factory tells the ideal story of a successful New Zealand business.

What’s not captured in that idyllic image is the stench of its wastewater ponds and the company’s solution, that involves spraying five olympic-sized pools of liquid onto nearby conservation land.

“This is a lovely New Zealand story,” says Newsroom’s David Williams of the food-making business, started by the Barker family in Geraldine in 1969.

“Everybody wants something to be started in a cowshed, don’t they? And to be innovative and to try something on the side. It’s this iconic story associated with this iconic brand.”

The business flourished, its jams, pickles and sauces are a Kiwi favourite. French food giant Andros bought a majority stake in 2015 and took complete ownership two years ago. Recently it opened a $60 million expanded factory on the outskirts of Geraldine, employing 300 locals.

But not a month goes by without a story about the South Canterbury factory’s wastewater woes.

“There’s been a bit of a shift in recent years and people around the factory haven’t been entirely happy with the way that Barker’s is behaving,” says Williams, who’s been investigating the company and its clashes with the environment regulator ECan and the Department of Conservation.

In the latest development, Barker’s has applied to the Department of Conservation (DOC) to spray 12,000 cubic metres of wastewater from its two ponds onto the neighbouring Hae Hae Te Moana River Conservation Reserve. DOC will decide by 5 March.

Williams says the story is about more than one company trying to come up with a solution for its industrial waste.

“This is about how regulators act when they have information and what they do in the face of companies pushing back. You know, this is one case but you would argue, is this the case of regulators up and down the country?”

The Timaru Herald’s Federico Magrin has also been digging into Barker’s wastewater practises and found it has been in tense discussions with ECan and DOC over it for months.

He reported in December that hundreds of emails, released under the Official Information Act, reveal exchanges between ECan, DOC and Barker’s over 18 months, “in a battle of cease-and-desist orders, claims and counter-claims”.

Magrin has looked into Andros, also a family company, famous for its Bonne Maman preserve. He compared its wastewater practices in France with New Zealand and found stark differences.

At its industrial site in France, its waste goes into a bioenergy plant next door and the highly treated wastewater is discharged into the neighbouring river.

“That is industrial France, whereas New Zealand this company is using the land as a treatment station, kind of. There is a very striking difference between how they treat wastewater in France and New Zealand even though one is in an industrial area and one is sitting next to a reserve with people living around the factory,” Magrin says.

His investigations also found that the rules for Andros in France are “extremely different” to Environment Canterbury’s regulations for Barker’s here.

“For the French factory there’s a limit for the amount of organic pollution it can discharge that ends up going into the water and what Barker’s is allowed to do is 32 times more than their French counterpart,” he says.

Williams says it is not the first time that Barker’s has sprayed wastewater onto the DOC reserve. Previously, DOC did not renew its license after the spray damaged the land.

“I don’t know why they let them discharge onto the reserve in the first place but when they’re faced with an application from anyone they have to consider it and they have to make sure there’s enough information for them to make a decision. I guess the public may judge them by whatever they decide goes on here.”

Listen to The Detail to hear how Barker’s has responded to the stories, why neighbours are nervous about the factory’s discharge plans for the DOC reserve and future plans to spray the wastewater on a pine forest block the company bought recently.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Schools say a Rotary Club-funded scheme that pays for counselling within 24 hours is making a huge difference for their students.

The programme called Lifting the Lid runs in several parts of the country and started in Wellington in 2022.

Schools say it helps them cope with a rising tide of mental health problems among young people.

David Shackleton, chair of the Wellington Lifting the Lid committee, said the programme originated in Australia and was introduced to the city by the Port Nicholson Rotary Club.

Since then Rotary clubs in areas including Hutt Valley and Kapiti had adopted the programme for their local schools, he said.

Shackleton said the Wellington scheme allocated funding to 14 participating schools – 10 secondary schools and four intermediate schools – to use as they wished.

He said the schools decided what was best for each child and sent a form to Lifting the Lid requesting approval, which was granted within 24 hours.

Shackleton said the Wellington programme had supported more than 1700 sessions for about 160 students since it began.

He said demand was growing at an alarming rate.

“We meet three times a year with the principals and the school counsellors and during that time we get their feedback on how the programme is going and what kind of demand they are seeing in their schools – consistently we hear that demand is increasing almost term by term,” he said.

Shackleton said it appeared social media including cyber-bullying was a major driver of mental health problems among young people.

He said the club and donors raised $100,000 for the Wellington programme for this year’s work – enough to put some aside for next year.

Rongotai College deputy principal Geoff Hall said the school was one of the first to join the scheme.

“It was a no-brainer for us. The well-being of kids is really, really important and one of the issues is just getting the funds to support those kids,” he said.

Hall said prior to joining the scheme the school used in-house expertise, sometimes including teachers who did not have counselling backgrounds, or waiting for appointments with external providers because the school did not have the money to pay for private sessions.

“This has allowed us to access external providers quickly and efficiently without that added burden of ‘where are we going to find the cash’. We can go to the ministry and in most cases the ministry actually do provide you with the money, but there’s a process and a long process to actually be able to access that,” he said.

Hall said the scheme helped the school be proactive and arrange sessions that equipped groups of boys with skills to improve their mental health.

“We’re giving the boys the tools to deal with their own wellbeing,” he said.

“Life as a teenager is a lot harder now than what it was when I first started teaching in 1990. These kids need a lot more explicit teaching of the skills to be able to deal with their own wellbeing.”

Hall said schools involved in the scheme met regularly to share their experiences and it was clear demand for counselling was increasing.

Wellington East Girls College associate principal Anna Wilson said Lifting the Lid ensured help for students was not delayed by lengthy waiting lists.

“Last year, we were able to have some students have educational psychologist assessments, which give us a really good understanding of why they’re not able to engage in their lessons and what’s going on for them,” she said.

“The families themselves couldn’t afford that and through the public system they would take a long time to get a referral from their GP to see a paediatrician or psychologist.”

Wilson said demand for mental services was high.

“This funding pool could be grown for us five to 10 times and we could still use it,” she said.

“The wait lists are extreme outside of school. We’ve got a team of two-and-a-half counsellors here at our school and we still have a wait list for the kids that want to see them.”

Wilson said it was clear from meetings with participating schools that anxiety and problems arising from social media were common.

She said Lifting the Lid relieved pressure on the school’s finances.

“A full educational psychological report for us would be around $1700, the equine therapy course was a similar cost… so that’s really awesome to have that funding to use,” she said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand