David Galler

Guest writer

Dr David Galler is the son of Polish Jewish refugees. He is the author of Things That Matter: Stories of Life and Death, a memoir of his work as a Middlemore Hospital intensive care specialist, which was named the best book of 2016 by the Spinoff. David was born in Wellington in 1967.

Image: The Spinoff

It’s not too late to halt the death spiral of New Zealand’s public health system

It’s a shambles of our own making, but it’s still one we can turn around.

By David Galler | 21st November, 2024

Jacinda Ardern speaks at Te Whare Runanga in 2018. Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images

Dr David Galler: My wish for Waitangi

The author and intensive care specialist on why he's hopeful the prime minister will this week make a transformational announcement on Māori health.

By David Galler | 3rd February, 2021

Photo: Getty Images

December 9, 2019: An intensive care doctor remembers Whakaari/White Island

Dr David Galler, a member of the team of intensive care and burns specialists at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital, writes about that terrible day and its aftermath.

By David Galler | 9th December, 2020

A short note on Judith Collins’ apathy over carbon emissions

A short note on Judith Collins’ apathy over carbon emissions

It's unacceptable to shrug off greenhouse gases as someone else's problem.

By David Galler | 6th October, 2020

Getty Images

As a doctor, I know better than most that climate change is a healthcare issue

Healthcare organisations need to realise that climate change and wellbeing are intertwined – and that what's good for the environment is always good for health.

By David Galler | 6th July, 2020

Getty Images

On doctors, unions and competing interests

We in the medical profession can learn something from the new chief of police in Minneapolis.

By David Galler | 15th June, 2020

(Photo: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The restraint technique that killed George Floyd has been used here too

Intensive care specialist David Galler remembers the time he tried and failed to save a New Zealander restrained in the same way that caused the death of American man George Floyd.

By David Galler | 4th June, 2020

A scene from the infectious diseases Biocontainment unit at Middlemore Hospital (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

David Galler: Life on the other side of a health crisis

The pandemic is helping restore the mana of New Zealand's public health workforce. Will significant and ongoing resourcing follow?

By David Galler | 11th April, 2020

Counting physical bed spaces if those bed spaces are not staffed by an ICU nurse is essentially meaningless. Photo: Getty Images

Our task in a world turned on its head: an Intensive Care doctor writes

Nowhere will the reality of Covid-19 be felt more acutely than our hospital ICUs. What is the mood at the front line?

By David Galler | 19th March, 2020

Photo: iStock

How to avoid another health system review that goes nowhere

Dr David Galler offers seven lessons from past reviews of the NZ health system that should inform the thinking currently under way.

By David Galler | 27th March, 2019