A very important submission to Manatū Hauora

Kei te rangatira, tēnā koe.

Thank you to the Ministry of Health for giving me this important opportunity to have my voice heard, and recognising that this is a matter for the whole nation to decide. Despite my lack of clinical or professional experience in this matter, I trust that the Ministry of Health will hold my views in high regard when making a decision on this matter.

I strongly believe that Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters should no longer be allowed his heart medication - for his own safety. I recognise that this may cause Mr Peters some distress, but firmly feel it is the right decision for his own health and wellbeing.

I recognise that these medications have been used for the general population for some time, but Mr Peters is a statistically small proportion of this population using this medication for the off-label purpose of bursting blood vessels in the name of outrage-driven politics.

The fact of the matter is that the levels of evidence supporting cardiovascular interventions is low - how could Mr Peters honestly make a decision when he does not have all the information in front of him? How can we know for sure that his doctors have adequately discussed all the possible risks with him? Do we even know that he has the capacity to consent to this risky, untested intervention?

We should only be prescribing Mr Peters this medication in the context of a blinded clinical trial, one that ideally runs for a significant period of time to allow us to properly collect long-term outcome data. I am certain this trial will not experience any issues with participation dropout, or adverse health effects for those on the placebo - and even if they did, we can't know for certain they might experience something worse on the cardiovascular intervention! We have to do this in the name of science and safety.

Thank you for this opportunity to have my voice heard,
Sincerely,
A cardiovascular expert (I've read some articles about it online).

For those intent on interpreting this piece in the least charitable possible way, this is a work of satire.

Kia ora e hoa mā - I'll have something longer up soon about Manatū Hauora's position statement into the use of puberty blockers for gender-affirming care - what it actually means (hint: not a new set of rules slamming down on prescribing) and how we got here, but in the meantime, while public consultation on a medical matter seems wholly inappropriate, that's where we're at now, so please do make your voices heard.

We're already seeing the anti-trans lobby mobilise their followers to push for further restrictions - Act and NZF were right out the gate at the starting gun with press releases crowing 'victory'.

You can fill out the online submission form here, and here's a useful guide on the submission form, which seems like it's been written in a way to privilege further restrictions over the status quo - and the Ministry's own position statement.