King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 30 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) to theMinister of Health: Are all district health boards meeting his expectations of providing timely quality health services; if not which DHBs are failing to provide “Better Sooner More Convenient” health care?Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health): Generally yes although there is always room for improvement. District health boards are receiving over $1 billion extra over the next 4 years and they are doing a very good job in tight financial times. The last quarterly national health targets published this week show that New Zealanders are receiving even more checks for diabetes and heart disease more help to quit smoking and they are getting more elective operations faster. The Government inherited a health service on track to ruin but thanks to strong financial management across the sector we are now able to invest more in the changing needs of our population.Hon Annette King: He is a joker is he not! Well in light of that answer—[Interruption] The optics are not good for you today Steven.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the member ask—Hon Annette King: In light of that answer is it acceptable for a patient to wait 12 months for an endoscopy at Southern District Health Board?Hon TONY RYALL: I would have to check whether that data is correct or not. It would depend on whether or not the patient had been booked in advance for a regular check-up. That is the reason why they would be waiting a year as we have a number of cases like that. But I am determined that we actually have faster access for those sorts of services and that is the reason why the Government is closely monitoring those. We are ensuring as part of our faster cancer treatment and better access to diagnostics that we can improve those waiting times.Hon Annette King: In light of that answer is it acceptable for a patient who finds it difficult to eat because of reflux and nausea who vomits blood and who has black tarry stools to wait 12 months for an endoscopy at Southern District Health Board?Hon TONY RYALL: Certainly if they have got those symptoms they need to go and talk to their general practitioner and get prioritised to go and be seen there. There have been longstanding issues at Southern District Health Board. I highlighted those in a press release last week.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I asked the Minister whether it was acceptable for that condition—Mr SPEAKER: And the Minister was explaining that there have been issues at the hospital. Would the Minister please continue his answer.Hon TONY RYALL: As I was saying to the member there are issues at Southern District Health Board. I identified them in a press release last week—what the Government is working on. Those problems are longstanding. They include for example Southern District Health Board stopping the provision of surveillance colonoscopies to hundreds of patients in 2006-07.Hon Annette King: Is it acceptable for patients at Waikato District Health Board to wait on average 31 days for urgent magnetic resonance imaging 128 days for semi-urgent magnetic resonance imaging and 174 days for a routine one; and what impact will those delays have on patients?Hon TONY RYALL: I would have to check that information. What I can tell the member is that as we said in the statement last week 75 percent of patients are getting a CT scan within 6 weeks and just over half of our patients are receiving magneticresonance imaging within 6 weeks. Certainly those who are needing them urgently are getting them faster.Hon Annette King: Is it acceptable for patients at Waikato District Health Board to wait on average 81 days for an urgent ultrasound and for no routine ultrasounds being undertaken at all?Hon TONY RYALL: I would have to check that information because I simply do not believe that is correct. I would suspect that the member has received information under the Official Information Act and she has not provided any coherence around what actual information she has asked the district health boards to provide.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table from the Waikato District Health Board under the Official Information Act information exactly as I set it out including that those who are not accepted—those who cannot even get a routine one—are returned to the referrer because they are unable to be completed within 6 months. That is the evidence he wanted—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Leave is sought to table that letter from the Waikato District Health Board. Is there any objection? There is none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Annette King: Why did he re-announce his so-called new gold standard for diagnostic tests as new policy last week when he had already announced it last year and does he think that re-announcing policy actually gives patients better sooner more convenient health care?Hon TONY RYALL: We were updating the public on the success that we are having in this. When I became Minister of Health Ministers could not actually tell people how long they were waiting for magnetic resonance imaging and CT scans because Annette King would not put any money into asking the question. The reason that they would not ask the question was that a whole lot of people in Dunedin were being denied regular colonoscopies because that Government did not want to know. What we updated and announced last week was that because of our new monitoring system we can tell patients that 75 percent of New Zealanders are getting their CT scans within 6 weeks and 50 percent are getting magnetic resonance imaging within 6 weeks far better than under—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I think that is quite a satisfactory—a long enough answer.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table two documents.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table two documents. A brief description please.Hon Annette King: Certainly. A letter from a patient from Southern District Health Board saying that he has to wait 12 months for an endoscopy and he has all the symptoms that I have already described. I have his permission to table it.Mr SPEAKER: Yes. And the second one?Hon Annette King: The second one is a letter from the Southern District Health Board—and the Minister wanted proof of this—saying that he has to wait for approximately 12 months for that endoscopy.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table those two documents. Is there any objection? There appears to be none. They can be tabled.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.