It’s often been said that a society can be judged by how it treats those in the dawn of life, the children, those in the twilight of life, the elderly, and those in the shadows of life, the sick and the needy. On all of these measures I think we’ve got a lot of work to do. Few issues illustrate that better than the recent cuts to home help hours for our elderly residents.

Late last year my electorate offices were deluged with complaints about the way the Hutt Valley DHB had been slashing home help hours. This cost-cutting agenda is endangering the health of our older citizens and could lead to more serious illness and avoidable cost blowouts in other areas. Read the rest of this entry »