King Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour)to the Minister of Health: Are patients receiving through New Zealand’s health care system the health care recommended by their medical practitioner; if not why not?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health):Yes they are and there have been remarkable improvements over the last 6 years. This is reflected in the extra 50000 first specialist assessments and 44000 elective surgeries that are now being delivered each year compared with 2008. Patients who are recommended for cancer treatment are also receiving that faster and without being flown to Australia as was the practice prior to 2008.Hon Annette King: If patients are receiving the care their medical practitioner recommends why did general practitioner Dr Tony Farrell from the Bay of Plenty come out publicly on Saturday and say: “people whose X-rays showed bone on bone and were in terrible pain were not being seen in a timely manner.”?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: General practitioners do not direct treatment; they seek a specialist opinion from a surgeon at the hospital. When they put that referral in there might be various reasons why there is not actually a specialist appointment or a surgery. The information might be incomplete there might be a need for further testing or it may actually be that that condition like bone on bone arthritis is better treated in the community. So the situation is exactly not what she represents it as.Hon Annette King: Has he replied to Mrs Logan who wrote to him on 17 April asking why her husband has had to live with an internal catheter for the past 7 months which has blocked nine times with severe effects on his health and daily life and still does not qualify for elective surgery?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Obviously I am not familiar with that individual case and as Annette King said when she was the Minister: “It’s better to help people than to use them.” But that notwithstanding if Mrs King would like to send me the details of the case I can look into it to see what the real truth of it is.Hon Annette King: What was his response to Mrs Leota who wrote to him the Prime Minister and her local member of Parliament 3 weeks ago highlighting the number of people in Invercargill living “with extenuating pain because they don’t have enough points to qualify for a hip operation” and asking for urgent action?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: If the member just waits till 3.30 she might get a very nice surprise as to what is happening in the community for people with orthopaedic hip pain.Hon Annette King: What reply did he give to Grey Power Hastings which wrote to him and the local member of Parliament Craig Foss on 4 March telling him how concerned it was about the rejection letters older people in the Hawke’s Bay were receiving and asking for “more honesty and fewer weasel words. Why pretend you can offer a service that you can’t?”Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: In the Hawke’s Bay the percentage of first specialist appointments has increased by 41 percent over the last 6 years and there has been a major uplift in elective surgery as well. There have been an extra 1278 operations performed each year. So I am sure that if the former Minister goes and asks her close relative the chief operations officer of Hawke’s Bay District Health Board she will be able to hear the truth because I am sure this information is not being leaked by him—surely not.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am wondering whom I have to ask.Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order. If the member wants to have a supplementary question use it.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member asks a question of me. What is my response to that? He said to go and ask the chief executive officer of Hawke’s Bay District Health Board.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No the COO.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the member resume his seat.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No question was asked; I made a statement.Mr SPEAKER: I too was unaware of any question asked either but if the member wants to ask a question she has got the perfect opportunity.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to make a point of order and ask whether the Speaker heard my question. I asked what was the Minister’s response to Grey Power—nothing to do with—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No the question in my opinion was addressed. I think that when you put down a primary question like that and then you list a whole lot of potential correspondence that has come out of the office of a Minister over the last 2 months it is not unrealistic that he cannot recall the content of the letter.