Hutchison Paul: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:617;Page:13263] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 There is certainly a time in a Government’s term when it can no longer hide its failures. If ever there is an area where its failures are becoming more and more obvious it is the district health boards and the health services they provide. One has only to go back to 1999 when Labour said on its pledge card: “We will deliver.” 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: No surgery! 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: It is not quite that bad but there is certainly a hanguva lot less surgery. Back in 1999 Labour also said that it would focus on patients not on profit and that waiting times for surgery would be cut. The system that the Government has created over its 4 years the system of district health boards which we are analysing tonight is one of the most complex bureaucratic systems that New Zealand has ever seen and probably one of the most complex bureaucratic and inefficient health systems in the world. 
Back in 1999 when this Government was supposed to deliver on its so-called pledge card who should come into Parliament looking somewhat arrogant but one Hon Dr Michael Cullen who said: “We won. You lost. Eat that!”. In the next 24 months the Government proceeded to deliver this highly complex bureaucracy of 21 district health boards and even the Government is now beginning to admit: “Gee we’d better amalgamate all the district health boards in Auckland.” I remind the Committee once again that back in 1989 the then Minister of Health Helen Clark—now the Prime Minister—fired her own Auckland health board which included her own husband because it had become so dysfunctional. Ten years later she had forgotten the mistakes of the past and set about recreating what had been a dismal failure back then. So we had Michael Cullen saying: “We won. You lost. Eat that!” but if we look in last week’s  
Dominion Post 
 we see: “More money. Less surgery. What’s wrong?”. 
What is wrong is the design of the health system that this failing Labour Government set up. As my colleague pointed out just recently the number of publicly funded surgical inpatient discharges—acute and elective—has fallen significantly in the 4 years of the Labour Government. Back in 2000 there were 160000 of them; this year the figure is down to 157000. When Dr Cullen was asked in this House what was wrong he said: “Look they mustn’t have been counting things. We’ll start counting what is happening in the outpatients clinics in the radiation clinics and various other aspects.” Once this Labour Government starts to count and to try to defend its actions we will find a network of deception—the very same network of deception that it created when it said it would cut waiting lists. What did this Labour Government really do? It set up what is called an active waiting list and literally tens of thousands of ordinary New Zealanders who had expected to get surgery under this Labour Government were simply shifted into the community to wallow to lie in pain to wait for their cataracts or hip surgery to be done. 
I would like to give the Committee an example that I have picked up over the last year during the period for which the Counties Manukau District Health Board is being examined. I received a letter from an 86-year-old man who has failing eyesight. He wrote: “Please note an enclosed report from Dr Singh of Tuakau Surgery detailing the condition of my failing eyes. A peculiar turn is the fact that Dr Singh received a report from Manukau eye clinic stating that Mr McPhail had been put on the list for cataract surgery while at the same time I Mr McPhail received one telling me my name had been removed.” That is the sort of shambles that this totally dysfunctional bureaucratic district health board system that the Labour Party Government created is actually creating in the community. It has caused confusion for that sort of elderly man. The district health board wrote back to me: “We can appreciate that the decision to remove Mr McPhail’s name from the rating list is upsetting and frustrating for him and must seem strange given that he had originally been on the waiting list for surgery. Clinically Mr McPhail would benefit from cataract surgery. Unfortunately we can’t deliver it.” 
That absolutely backs up the Treasury report that we addressed in December 2003 which showed that despite this Labour Government spending more money it was delivering less. That has been backed up absolutely clearly in the areas of both major joint replacements and cataracts over the 4 years of this Labour Government. It is extremely serious to note that in 1999 the number of major joint replacements done was 5250 and that in 2002-03 this Labour Government delivered only 4481 major joint replacements. I refer now to cataracts which affect the elderly of this nation and which my constituent Mr McPhail writes about. He writes about the failings of the district health boards under this Labour Government. What are the actual figures? Back in 1999 7831 cataract operations were carried out and in 2002-03 that figure had gone down by over 400. What is the reply of the Labour Government to that? It is: “Oh we’ll do some more analysis of what we are doing in the outpatient clinics in the radiation clinics and in the oncology clinics. We’ll fix some numbers that will befuddle the general public.” 
It is absolutely clear what has happened under this Labour Government. It has put in more money but the number of cataract operations for the elderly has gone down over 4 years. The Government has said it will deliver—that it will cut waiting times. What has it done? It has created an active waiting-list whereby patients who have real illnesses difficult conditions and are in pain are put off the waiting list to await their fate. That is the effect of this Labour Government’s design of the health system for New Zealand and it is a disgrace. 
I have gone around each district health board asking each of them two questions. One was whether there had been any shifting of resources from the secondary and tertiary areas into the primary area. That was one of the promises; that was one of the things Labour said would happen when it concentrated on primary care. Every one of them has said a resounding “No”. The other question I asked them was whether there had been any tangible improvement in health outcomes out in the community that they could measure. The answer has been a resounding “No”. This Labour Government despite all its rhetoric despite Labour’s pledge card has delivered absolutely no improvement in heath outcomes out in the community. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Honourable members just before I put the vote can I say that a cellphone was heard during the speech made by Dr Paul Hutchison. I remind members that it is my duty to keep the debate within the Standing Orders. After all they are the rules that have been crafted by well over a century and a half of parliamentary practice in New Zealand and it is my duty to ensure that they are upheld. So if members do have cellphones in the Chamber would they please turn them off. I refer them to Speaker’s ruling 16/2. 
Reports noted.