Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:646;Page:15632] 
10.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: How many patients may have their specialist appointments or elective surgery disrupted if the junior doctors’ strike goes ahead next week? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I am advised that the district health boards are making contingency plans and that the first priority is patient safety. Life-preserving services arrangements have been concluded with the Resident Doctors Association to ensure that acute and emergency services are covered. Further contingency planning does involve postponing some elective surgery. That contingency planning suggests that around 800 patients may have their elective surgery postponed and more than 5500 could have a specialist appointment postponed. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Now that the Minister has confirmed to the House that well over 6500 patients will have their care disrupted by the junior doctors’ strike which will make the waiting list even longer does the Government propose to take any action? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Last time I looked 5500 plus 800 was less than 6500. Be that as it may the district health boards and the Resident Doctors Association were today continuing their bargaining as they should do. 
Lesley Soper 
: Has the Minister received any updates on the positions of the two parties? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Yes. I am advised that the Resident Doctors Association has asked for a 40 percent increase over 3 years. I am further advised that the district health boards have offered a 4.08 percent increase over each of the next 2 years and have further offered to discuss a wide range of terms and conditions. I call on both sides to progress their discussions in good faith with a view to ensuring the long-term health benefits of all New Zealanders through a sustainable and well-functioning health system. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What will be the likely cost of paying senior doctors to cover the rosters of junior doctors? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Considerably less than the cost of meeting the demand for a 40 percent pay increase. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Is the Minister concerned about the effect of the proposed junior doctors’ strike in the Hawke’s Bay especially in light of the fact that Mr Ryall has given up asking written questions on the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board with a mere three written questions having been asked in the past 9 months? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Obviously I am concerned that all New Zealanders should be able to maintain confidence in a high-quality and safe health system. That concern also underlay my recent decision in regard to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. It is of interest that Mr Ryall’s recent adventures in that regard appear to have been designed for the camera rather than the coalface; however I note that even those theatrics have tailed off now that he has had the opportunity to read the independent review report. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister aware that yesterday the district health board chief executives discussed proposals that senior doctors be paid $500 an hour extra on top of their current pay rates for filling in for junior doctors which would mean that some doctors would be paid $650 an hour to cover junior doctor rosters during the 2-day strike; and is not this more evidence of the health workforce crisis after 9 years of neglect from the Labour Government? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: In the first place there is no crisis. There are more doctors and nurses in New Zealand’s health system than there were when this Government took office and a considerable resource injection has assisted workforce development. It is not appropriate for me to set the terms of discussions between senior doctors and the district health boards but I would like to express my appreciation of the senior medical specialists who are using good faith to cover a strike that will put considerable inconvenience on them and on other hospital workers. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What reports has the Minister got or is getting prepared in respect of any likely strike in the Hawke’s Bay or is it the case that having learnt of Mr Ryall going around the press gallery and promising a neutron bomb that turned out to be a Tom Thumb he is now not too concerned about it? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The length of the member’s fuse is no business of mine. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is it not another sign of the health workforce crisis in New Zealand when this Government is going to pay up to $650 an hour to senior doctors who cover for junior doctors on strike—cancelling thousands of specialist appointments and many elective surgeries—and is spending $100 million a year on filling vacancies with locums? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: In the first place the member should get himself acquainted with the facts. I am advised that the true cost of locums is about $24 million a year not $100 million—or does that member believe every press release from the Resident Doctors Association? 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: How can the Minister account for his inconsistency in being involved in the senior doctors’ strike but not being involved in the junior doctors’ strike? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: There is absolutely no inconsistency. In the first place I facilitated a meeting. In the second place I did so only after the senior doctors’ negotiations had dragged on for nearly 2 years. The junior doctors’ talks have been substantively under way since just before Christmas. The member cannot have it both ways: either he stands for the delivery of elective services for New Zealanders or he stands for being a drama queen about strikes.