Stewart Barbara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Stewart Barbara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18288] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 As the Rt Hon Winston Peters stated in this House yesterday the state of the nation address given by the Prime Minister did not really give us a true picture of the state of the nation’s health. It was a really great vision but it was not the full picture. There is still more work to be done and I know that the Prime Minister acknowledged that. Despite the additional dollars that have been invested in the health system—and the Prime Minister said yesterday that an additional 40 percent had been invested in health and we acknowledge that—there are hundreds of thousands of very young New Zealanders waiting for service in this health system. We realise we cannot meet all of the needs of all of the people all of the time but we need to meet more of the needs of the people some of the time. 
The Prime Minister has told us that a stitch in time saves nine and in New Zealand First we totally agree with that statement particularly as it relates to the health system. The health system needs to deliver a far greater output from the great investment that it has. We want and we need an efficient and an effective health service. 
 One of the most important issues the health system faces and it needs to be addressed is the issue of workforce numbers and the retention of the workforce in the health service. On that issue there is silence. The bottom line is that that numbers challenge impacts negatively upon the services the health system can actually offer to New Zealanders.While the Government is busy telling New Zealanders just how well off we all are the effects of this deficiency in resources is being felt by all sectors of our society. 
Of great concern and the area I wish to focus on is oral health and in particular the hospital dental service. That service is totally relied on by parents who have young children who need to be anaesthetised in order for dental work to be carried out and there are a growing number of children in that category. 
Unfortunately an increasing number of under 5-year-olds are having a large number of teeth extracted or having multiple fillings and for many special-needs patients that is the only way oral health can be maintained at a reasonable level. Dental therapists and dentists are unable to treat those patients and they are obliged to go into the hospital system. 
The waiting times for that service are totally outrageous. In Wellington last year there was a waiting list of 12 months for dental work on children requiring a general anaesthetic. That is totally unsatisfactory for children who suffer from the effects of rotting teeth and the pain that results from that and for their parents or caregivers who have to try to deal with the consequences. That is not an isolated case; there are others. As a former dental nurse the Minister of Health should be aware of the consequences of having to wait for dental treatment and a solution is urgently required for that particular problem. They are children to whom one cannot explain the reasons for a lack of service. 
Likewise the number of dentists who provide free adolescent care under the general dental benefits contract or the adolescent oral health service agreement is minimal. We now have an oral health service in this country where those parents who can afford to do so pay for those services for those children and those who cannot go without. That is a disgrace for our supposedly First World system. Urgent attention is required in that particular area. 
However other aspects of children’s health are being neglected as well. It is very troubling to find that many children in New Zealand are suffering from Third World diseases that relate to poverty poor housing and overcrowding. In the past 14 months in the south Waikato area that was particularly evident with almost 2000 preventable hospital admissions for rheumatic fever bronchial pneumonia meningitis whooping cough and gastroenteritis. We acknowledge that something is being done in the meningitis area. Add to that fact that more than 140 children were hospitalised with severe dental problems. 
Those figures do not make good reading and they were printed in the  
Waikato Times 
. That is only in one district health board. It is estimated that some 12000 Waikato children many of whom live in rural areas have yet to be enrolled in primary health organisations. On a per capita basis the rate of illness in south Waikato and King Country was higher than it was in south Auckland. We believe that other district health boards will have a similar set of figures. It is an unfortunate fact that we know more about our dogs in our communities than we know about our children. That is something that we really need to do something about.