Street Maryan: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Street Maryan: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:7930] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I stand to take a call in this discussion on the financial review of the 2005-06 year in the health portfolio. I want to draw attention to a number of things and rather than focusing on single issues as the previous two speakers have done I would like to try to traverse some of the gamut of the health portfolio and to demonstrate not only the complexity of the portfolio—which seems to escape members opposite who enjoy the luxury of focusing on single issues—but also the successes in the performance of our health sector in the 2005-06 year. 
We are frequently asked when we say we have put an extra $2.2 billion into the health sector over the last 7 years what we have to show for that investment. In fact the 2005-06 year is a very good year to look at for a return on investment in the health budget. What we can see in the roll-out of primary health care in particular and the primary health care strategy of this Labour-led Government is first and foremost a cut of about 50 percent in the cost of going to most doctors. That really reverberates for families right around the country. When they know that it now costs them about half of what it used to cost them to go to the doctor it makes a difference. When we couple that with the lowered cost of prescription drugs we know we are on to something that really makes a difference to New Zealand families. That is a success story. 
Another thing I draw to the attention of members is that last year—the year under review—the Commonwealth Fund did some research on the health systems of seven OECD nations with most of the 2006 information focusing on primary care. New Zealand came out first or second in roughly 60 percent of the indicators. Let me give some examples. Amongst the countries surveyed were the Netherlands New Zealand the United Kingdom the United States Australia Germany and Canada—countries that we like to compare ourselves with. Some of the highlights of that research showed that 90 percent of general practices in New Zealand have after-hours care arrangements second only to the Netherlands and twice the rate of the United States. New Zealand general practitioners had the second-highest rate of utilising electronic patient records. New Zealand practices reported the highest usage of electronic laboratory results and hospital records and New Zealand’s 5-year breast cancer survival rate was higher than the average of the seven countries and better than that of Australia and Japan. On top of that we have had an increase in the number of hip and knee replacement operations and in the number of cataract operations. That was a significant election commitment by the Labour Party in the 2005 election. 
I want to talk about the secondary health sector for a moment although clearly the primary health sector is at the forefront of our movement in the health portfolio. In the secondary health sector we are funding in addition to the extra hip and knee replacements and cataract operations 10000 extra elective surgery procedures over the next 4 years. Let me tell members some other success stories. If we were to listen only to a diet of Opposition speeches we would think that nothing good ever happened. Well it is about time there was some balance in some of that information. I met with all three district health boards in Auckland last Friday afternoon. All three of those boards are now predicting that in 2007-08 they will break even. 
Opposition members ask where we are seeing productivity. I can tell them that the Counties Manukau District Health Board is reporting a 4 percent productivity rate in the last year and it will break even in the next year. There have also been huge successes and advances in the level of service that the Counties Manukau District Health Board—if I can use it as an example for a moment—has been delivering. It has been seeing something in the order of 750 people daily in schools. [ 
Interruption 
] If members opposite listen to this they may learn something. Something really important that has been vexing us is obesity and diabetes; hence the inquiry that the Health Committee is engaged in at the moment. Because of some of the interventions of the Counties Manukau District Health Board it can report that one school in its area has in the last year seen a drop in the body mass index of its year 9 students from on average 35 to 17.5—in 1 year. That kind of activity and intervention on the ground by a district health board financed and supported by the commitment of this Labour Government cannot be ignored. 
The end of the 2005-06 financial year under review was when the first of the big multi-employer collective agreements came into effect in the health sector which was the agreement affecting nurses. As at 1 July last year nurses got to $54000 at the beginning of their fifth year of employment. That was because of a huge commitment to pay equity and equal pay for work of equal value. We applied that in the health sector because it was an area where it was needed. Last week the Capital and Coast District Health Board came to the Health Committee and reported that since those pay rates have been in place the nursing retention rate at the Capital and Coast District Health Board has improved dramatically. It had a turnover rate in the order of 37 percent annually. It has now dropped to something in the order of 13 percent. So the money put into the wages and salaries of the people who work in our hospitals is paying off. That money has flowed across the health sector and across the various health professional occupations. What we are seeing for all those health professionals is improved retention and recruitment rates. Those things are testament to the success of the efforts of this Government in the 2005-06 year in particular and in earlier years. 
I could talk about the fact that the mental health workforce has grown by 26 percent since we came into Government. I could talk about more training places for general practitioners and an extra $2 million to increase the number of general practitioner training places by over 25 percent for each of the next two training years. Enormously good things are going on. 
There is an increase in productivity. In fact our hospitals are busier than they have ever been so there is an increase in activity. Hospitals report to us that in the 2005-06 year total in-patient surgical activity has increased by 5.7 percent. The number of New Zealanders receiving elective surgery has increased by 6.2 percent—on a case-weighted basis that is 21.3 percent. Medical discharges reached 317000 in 2005-06. That was a 29.5 percent increase on the figures of 1999-2000. 
The figures go on and on. Money is being poured into the health system at the primary end and at the secondary end and the productivity that is coming out of that is absolutely palpable. One other report from the Auckland District Health Board last week stated that that district health board was looking for hips. If members know of people who need hip replacements then they should point those people in the direction of the Auckland District Health Board if their local one does not have the capacity. That is how the system works; people can be transferred. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Before I call the vote I just say to members that interjections are not permitted at all when they are directed at a member who does not have the call. I am looking to my left and my right. 
Report noted.