Hutchison Paul: General Debates 
Hutchison Paul: General Debates 
[Volume:618;Page:13866] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Last Thursday the Minister of Health organised a patsy question from her colleague Steve Chadwick. The question asked: “What is the Government doing to address the continuing meningococcal epidemic?”. After the Minister’s usual loquacious beginning to the answer she said: “The vaccine is safe and will provide protection against the epidemic strain of group B meningococcal disease.” But what did we find the next day? We found that Medsafe had not even licensed the vaccine. The Minister had botched up on the first batch of the vaccine. Meningococcal meningitis is indeed a very serious disease. Of the approximate 5000 cases between 1991 and 2004 there were 220 deaths. In 2003—just last year—there were 540 cases including 13 deaths. 
 Yet here we have the Minister of Health botching up at the beginning of this very serious campaign. She clearly has some explaining to do because the people running this campaign do not even know what is going on. I spoke to them in Auckland yesterday and they do not even know what is going on themselves. Why did she say that the vaccine was safe before it was even licensed before it was even checked out by the international panel of experts? Can the Minister answer me? No she cannot. There is no way that that question can be answered at this stage of events. 
The Minister has now said that she cannot give clear explanations because of commercial secrecy with regard to the people who are manufacturing the vaccine. But there are contracted vaccinators waiting out there in south Auckland right now who have nothing to do because there has been a muck-up. This is a serious waste of very precious health dollars. This is the way the Minister of Health operates. She has started a very important vaccination campaign with a botch-up. Can she guarantee that Medsafe will license the vaccine? Of course she cannot give that guarantee. Therefore she should not have claimed prematurely that the vaccine was safe. 
There are also extremely serious questions about the date of the vaccine and whether there will be any further delays. I read in the  
New Zealand Herald  
that “the Ministry of Health is reassuring the public it’s on track with the meningococcal vaccine.” Yet already the campaign has been delayed by 2 weeks. So how can the ministry say the campaign is on track when it is several weeks late already? What is more there is a chance that the first whole batch of vaccine may have to be dumped at considerable expense. If the Minister had held her instruction to Steve Chadwick if she had instead explained the problems that can occur with a new vaccine she could have been forgiven. But I know that this Minister of Health insisted on her 24 hours of glory before she was found out to be grossly incompetent. 
The other aspect is the wider issue of vaccinations in New Zealand. I have asked on several occasions whether the Minister can tell me how many New Zealand children are having their vaccinations completed. After 4½ years of a Labour Government she cannot even tell us how many children are having their vaccinations completed.