Not the time to share: NZ needs to rethink multi-bed hospital rooms – Opinion

THREE KEY FACTS The cost of building new hospitals and patching up old ones will near $47 billion. Doctors are making beds and cleaning medical equipment, on top of a busy workload . Wellington Regional Hospital no longer offers toast to mums after giving birth Cindy Towns – senior lecturer, University of Otago Wellington, University of Otago; Angela Ballantyne – associate professor of bioethics, University of Otago; Matthew Kelly – senior clinical lecturer, health sciences, University of Otago.

OPINION As New Zealand agonises over its hospitals – where they are, how they should be staffed and how they should be funded – a key element in the debate is being missed: the need for single rooms in all public hospitals ..