So this week we saw Health Minister Simeon Brown’s true colours, and they were a little patronising.  

Brown said he wanted medical officers of health to stop writing about issues like fast food and “leading advocacy campaigns” on public health issues. Instead, he said their focus should be on “technical advice” and immunisation campaigns.  

The thing is, promoting health and preventing disease by assessing a community's health needs and the underlying social factors impacting health and wellbeing is what medical health officers do. It’s a core part of their job and comes with an obligation to talk about broader health needs such as the impact of alcohol, tobacco, or fast food.  

Brown clearly has preferences he’d rather they spoke about - like immunisations. Increasing immunisation rates has been a key priority and target for the Government since taking power, and progress is slow. But I’m not sure telling public health doctors to stay in their lane, a lane dictated by Government, is going to keep them on side.   

Public health officers haven’t been banned from speaking out about what might be best for their community or region, but have been told any advice they want to offer will need sign off at a national level.  

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Sarah Dalton told me on Early Edition this week that Brown is overstepping the mark. She says there are widespread concerns at attempts to silence doctors - preventing them speaking about public health and patient safety issues. She acknowledges we need to be sensible, but should also respect the significant training and responsibilities our senior doctors hold under legislation.  

It’s also an odd thing for Brown to focus on. Maybe he wants a Big Mac next time he drives through Wanaka, but calling out a declined application for MacDonald’s was a poor talking point - it was declined because of location not the advice of a medical officer of health.  

There is so much more to focus on when it comes to our overwhelmed health system. The Government should refer to its own list of priorities which reflects what the public is more interested in - reducing wait times in EDs, providing more primary care and cutting through surgery wait lists. These are the issues we should be laser focused on, not creating an environment in which those with health expertise and knowledge can no longer speak freely.  

And as for Brown commenting that people should be able to make their own decisions when it comes to their health and what they chose to eat, well, yes, they should. And they do. All the time. Based on good information - including from, you guessed it, medical experts. 

We rely on doctors and our GPs to do the preventative work, supporting people to make good decisions for both themselves and our health system. As the Ministry of Health said in their briefing to new Minister of Health in January - “enhancing our focus on prevention is essential to create the best possible chance of good health across the life-course”. 

So maybe we should just leave doctors to it. If doctors aren’t allowed to give broad advice on health, I’m not sure who is.

LISTEN ABOVE