Dean Jacqui: General DebateText is subject to correctionDean Jacqui: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4496. Text is subject to correction.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki):If we needed an illustration of how important good public services are for the lives of New Zealanders then I think the events around the Southern District Health Board’s non-performance over the past few years absolutely illustrates and confirms this Government’s push and very strong focus on providing good public services. Today’s letter by the Minister of Health the Hon Jonathan Coleman to the Southern District Health Board replacing it with commissioners is the circuit-breaker that we have been looking for and that we have needed down south in the Southern District Health Board area.I commend the Minister for his approach to this worrying situation which has been developing over the previous months and years. It has been particularly worrying not only for the people of Dunedin and Invercargill but for the people of Central Otago and also North Otago. The reason for that is that the two rural hospitals Dunstan Hospital and Ōāmaru Hospital have contracts for services with the district health board. If you talk about the people of those areas Ōāmaru is an area in North Otago with a fairly static population an ageing population but we also have a number of new people coming into our communities as a result of employment opportunities. Central Otago on the other hand is an area of growth. It also has its fair share of older folk there with their particular needs but it is experiencing strong growth.I met many years ago now a young woman who lived at Lake Hāwea. She was pregnant and was concerned about her pregnancy because she was one of those to whom it was signalled that she would probably have to go to Dunedin for the birth of her child. The implications of that were very stark. If one were to look at the Stuff website one would see that there is a bad weather and snow warning for all of Central Otago and much of the south. What that would mean is that if you were having a planned birth at Dunedin Hospital from Hāwea you would almost have to set up the day before. We are very remote down south. We are very remote from the base hospitals of Dunedin and Invercargill which is why it is so very important to maintain the capability and the funding to both Dunstan and Ōāmaru hospitals. We are remote.Dr David Clark: Her hospital’s underfunding. That’s why they are facing cuts.JACQUI DEAN: It is really disappointing when the Opposition members choose to treat such a serious issue as an opportunity for political gain. Quite apart from the fact that they are just wrong the issues are very important to all of Dunedin and I do hope that that member chooses to take them a little more seriously in the future.The rural health services review that was undertaken by the district health board over the past couple of years promised to be an opportunity to provide better services for those hospitals of Dunstan and Ōāmaru but also Balclutha of course and Ranfurly. The board promised to take a more modern view and more modern look at how we provide health services for that woman living in Lake Hāwea or for the person who is experiencing a cardiac event in Wānaka or Ōāmaru and needs specialist health services. It is entirely feasible these days for health services to be provided out at the rural hospitals. If I can just reference the mobile health services—the surgical bus that travels around New Zealand delivering day surgeries to patients at those hospitals providing a huge benefit in terms of convenience and cost and with greater health outcomes because those patients do not have to travel. That is the future. That is the future of rural health services.I wish the commissioners—Kathy Grant Graham Crombie and Richard Thomson—the very best in their endeavours because I would like to see this as an opportunity to have another look not just at reducing the deficit and not just at a better delivery of health services to all people within the district health board area but as an opportunity to look at how we deliver health services better in the future.