Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:609;Page:6342] 
8.  
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (NZ National—Kaikoura) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Have district health boards such as Lakes and Waikato ceased performing elective hernia operations in their public hospitals without public consultation on this rationing; if so why? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I am advised that no district health boards have ceased performing elective hernia surgery. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In the past you have always asked that we raise a point of order at the end to table documents. But I have documents here that show quite clearly that these two district health boards have sent out letters saying that they do not. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Ask for leave now—but that is unusual. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I seek leave to table documents from the Lakes District Health Board and the Waikato District Health Board saying: “We have decided that at present we will not offer consultation or inpatient lists for inguinal hernias umbilical hernias”— 
Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Does the Minister believe that when a general practitioner is immensely concerned about the impact of having a patient rejected from the waiting list and has asked the hospital to reconsider that decision the patient should at least be seen for a first specialist assessment; if not what are general practitioners supposed to do to care for a patient they clearly know needs surgery and needs it now? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I agree with the member that a doctor has the right to refer a patient to a specialist when he or she believes that a person has reached a condition where he or she requires the attention of that specialist. I would expect that doctor to make that referral. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What are some of the reasons that have influenced a drop in the need for hernia surgery? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: There has been a drop in the need for hernia surgery and some of it comes from the use of improved surgical technologies such as laparoscopic surgery. In the past where large incisions were necessary during surgery it often led to hernias; and with the changes in the way operations are carried out patients are less likely to herniate following surgery today. 
Pita Paraone 
: Given the Government’s pledge to reduce the numbers on hospital waiting lists and the present practice of rationing some elective surgery can the Minister give an assurance that this practice will not compromise the health and safety of people on waiting lists who are requiring such surgery? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The purpose of a booking system is to ensure that those who need surgery first get it first and that is why they are prioritised to get surgery within 6 months. The way we rationed in the past was to leave people on waiting lists for 6 or 7 years waiting for hernia operations they would never get. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does the Minister agree that removing a patient from a waiting list when a patient has given his or her consent for surgery and there is an implied understanding that surgery will happen is ethically unacceptable and a breach of the health and disability code; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No I do not believe that it is a breach. If a person has been taken from the waiting list because he or she cannot receive the surgery within 6 months and sent back to the doctor for active review that does not mean the person will not get surgery; it means the surgery cannot be provided within the 6 months required. 
Heather Roy 
: In relation to the funding available for operations does the Minister deny that the ministry’s view in December 2001—at the time of the Minister’s big package announcement—was that the package would produce a total deficit of $79 million in 2002-03; and how is it that this morning at the select committee she confirmed an explosion in the size of this deficit to $192 million? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is very wide of the original question but the Minister may comment. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: That was the predicted deficit at the time. The deficit did become larger than that but I am pleased to tell the member as I told her this morning that the predicted deficit for this next financial year is considerably less and I believe that it will be one of the lowest we have had in many years in this House. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: What is her response to Dr Falconer a general practitioner of Te Awamutu who has a 42-year-old patient who has had to be put on a sickness benefit because he cannot work due to an inguinal hernia that Waikato Hospital has twice refused to even consider repairing and who states: “I consider this grossly unreasonable and a total waste of welfare resources to condemn this man to unnecessary disability.”? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I suggest that the doctor take this up with the Waikato District Health Board because as of today both Lakes and Waikato district health boards inform me that hernias that cause major pain and discomfort or are disabling are being operated on. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Why did the Minister not know that the Lakes and Waikato district health boards are not offering hernia operations and why does the patient have to wait until a hernia strangulates—that is necessitating urgent and life-threatening surgery—before a patient can get public health-care and is her advice that all New Zealanders should try to take out private health insurance because that is the only way they will get elective surgery? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That was three questions. The Minister may reply to two. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: According to the Waikato District Health Board as of today it does not require a strangulated hernia for a person to receive surgery. In fact the board has said to us that hernias that cause major pain or discomfort or are disabling are being operated on. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I seek leave to table a letter sent out from Waikato District Health Board in respect of patients with inguinal hernias. 
Document not tabled. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I seek leave to table the letter from Dr Falconer expressing his immense concern. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.