5. Question No. 5—HealthDr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 5—Health5. Dr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Health: Does he stand by all his statements and actions?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): Yes.Dr Shane Reti: What actions if any has he taken to prevent tomorrow's planned nurses' strike?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Negotiations in relation to the nurses' pay and conditions is a matter between the Nurses Organisation and the district health boards represented centrally and collectively. I have monitored the progress of those talks and unfortunately agreement hasn't been reached and the nurses have exercised their industrial right to take industrial action.Dr Shane Reti: What steps has he taken if any to ensure industrial action does not cause delays to the coronavirus vaccination roll-out?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: When the nurses take industrial action they engage with the district health boards on ensuring that life-preserving cover is provided for in the hospitals. They have provided an exemption for nurses working in the managed isolation and quarantine facilities but no such exemption has been provided for registered nurses covered by the Nurses Organisation working in the vaccination facilities. But there are other vaccinators as part of the vaccinator workforce and I'm confident that the vaccination programme will continue.Dr Shane Reti: What advice did he receive from health officials around Budget 2021 DHB wage cost pressures if any and did he build a specific DHB nursing pay rise into his Budget 2021 bid?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On this side of the House when it comes to negotiations particularly industrial negotiations we have a policy of not showing our hand because that's typically how contract negotiations take place. The cost pressures part of the health budget in the 2021 Budget was negotiated. It provides an across-the-board 4 percent increase from one year to the next in terms of DHB funding. How DHBs utilise that apart from ring-fenced funding in some areas is a matter for DHBs.Dr Shane Reti: Will spending $485 million to restructure the health system be money better spent on front-line nurses?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: In relation to the money appropriated to set up the new system I can say that the money includes also money for commissioning of new services both by the interim Māori Health Authority and interim Health New Zealand. The reason why we are setting up Health NZ and the distributed leadership model that we're adopting is because with many of the nationwide programmes we sought to adopt in recent years we have struggled to get the DHBs to implement them consistently. One of those programmes is Care Capacity Demand Management which is the programme to increase nursing personnel to better match demand of patient arrival in hospitals. We see now that three years on the agreed deadline for implementing it which was 30 June this year—only half of DHBs say that they will meet that deadline. Another seven say it might be the end of the year before they meet it and three are saying they're not sure whether they can meet it at all this year and it might be sometime next year. It is time to get coherence and consistency in our health system.