Ryall Tony: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4294] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 In Parliament’s voting of $10 billion to the Minister of Health for the administration and provision of our national health service Parliament has to ask itself what progress this Government is making towards delivering a healthier nation and the improved welfare of our people. This is a Government that is asking Parliament to vote it over $10 billion which is an increase of $4 billion since it came to office but what has it got to show for it? There is all that extra money and we have a sicker nation. There is all that extra money but one has to be sicker today to get an operation in any public hospital than 5 years ago. There is an extra $4 billion but there are fewer elective surgeries being performed in this country than 5 years ago. There is an extra $4 billion but our public health initiatives are still not reaching the most at-risk groups in our community. 
This Government has run out of ideas it has run out of energy and it has run out of commitment to provide the vision and leadership that we need in the health sector to provide this country with better health and welfare in terms of our natural beings. This is a Government that this year came to Parliament to ask for $10 billion but we know that it is already planning on having $100 million worth of deficits in the accounts of the nation’s district health boards. That is how bad this Government’s management is of our public health system and the public purse which is shown here in Vote Health. A $100 million deficit in district health board accounts is already being budgeted for in this year’s appropriation. 
This is a Government that is having all its chickens coming home to roost. It has been able to cover up its poor performance in health through bluster and spin but now the public is on to it. Everywhere one travels around the country one sees there is widespread dissatisfaction with the New Zealand public health system. Doctors in both our hospitals and our general practices are disenchanted with this Government’s management and the way in which the system is bogged down in bureaucracy. 
We have fewer general practitioners in this country than we had 6 years ago. General practice has to be the cornerstone of our health service and there are opportunities for general practice to have an even greater role in providing for the health and welfare of New Zealanders. But this Government is attacking general practice at every opportunity. There are fewer general practitioners in the country today and there are many thousands of New Zealanders who cannot get registered with a general practitioner. 
Earlier this week I was in the Horowhenua. In the Horowhenua they are flying down a general practitioner from Kerikeri 3 days a week because of its shortage of doctors. On the Kapiti coast the person who runs the primary health organisation a contracted provider told me on Monday that 1000 people on the Kapiti coast cannot get a doctor. We know that New Zealanders cannot get registered with a general practitioner in Timaru or Gisborne. That has been reported. We know that in Waimate almost 2000 people cannot get on the books of a general practitioner. That is the state of the general practice workforce in New Zealand which the Government continues to ignore. 
The pressure on that workforce is becoming even worse as a result of this Government’s cynical plan to manipulate the nation’s public hospital waiting lists. That cynical plan is not about providing New Zealanders with treatment or care; that cynical plan is not about prioritising patients who need to get care; that cynical plan is all about chopping people off waiting lists so that the Prime Minister can stand up in the Chamber and say that she has cleared those waiting lists. But New Zealanders are on to that. Every day hundreds of New Zealanders find out about their friends and neighbours getting a letter or a phone call from their district health board telling them they have been culled from a hospital waiting list. 
There are two areas where people are being culled from their waiting list. The first concerns those people whose general practitioners say they need to see a specialist. Those people—over 120000 at the last count about April—need to see a specialist. Their general practitioners say they need to see a specialist but the Minister and the Government say that people who have been waiting more than 6 months regardless of the urgency of their care are to come off the waiting list. The cruellest cut of all though has come for those thousands of New Zealanders who were promised an operation. The Government never wanted to see that list revealed but we got the information out. An estimated 10000 New Zealanders who were promised an operation have been culled from hospital waiting lists—and the human cost is incredible. 
New Zealanders heard about the young woman who had a breast mastectomy and was promised a breast reconstruction but because of the severity of her disease she had to wait more than 6 months in order for things to settle down. What did this Government do? Did it honour the pledge to sufferers of breast cancer that they could have breast reconstructions? No she was cut off the waiting list by Pete Hodgson. What about the young child who cannot smile? That child was chopped off the waiting list by the Government. What about the young woman who was turfed off a hospital waiting list and as a consequence was admitted to hospital as an acute patient and now has a colostomy bag? How happy are Labour members about that? 
The Labour Party has just celebrated its 90th anniversary but did Labour members really come to Parliament to dump from waiting lists old people women who have lost their breasts and children who cannot smile and cut them out of the public health service? Did they really come to Parliament to provide fewer elective surgeries for New Zealanders who need them? Did they really come to Parliament to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an extra 1800 bureaucrats in the health system? Is that really what Labour is about? 
Under this Labour Government health dollars have gone further and further up the social strata. The Government is providing a political strategy rather than a health strategy. Its own people are the ones who are missing out. When Labour party people were celebrating in the electorate of the millionaire member from Otara did they think for one moment about the tens of thousands of their supporters who have been culled from hospital waiting lists? 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Too busy with the chardonnay. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Too busy with the chardonnay! Did they think what they were doing for the tens of thousands of their supporters—people who live on little more than national superannuation a welfare benefit or a low income? Did they think of the young woman with skin cancer eating away at her face who has been culled from a hospital waiting list and who cannot get care? Is that the Labour vision of a public health system in New Zealand? Is it Labour’s vision that millionaires in Whakatane pay $20 for a visit to the doctor but beneficiaries in Tauranga pay $30? Is it Labour’s vision that for every two nurses who have been employed in the public health system in the last 5 years there is another manager? Is that really what Labour came to office to have? Did Labour really come to office to have the aged-care workforce fade away through lack of support and training? Is that what Labour is really about? 
This Budget is not honest to Labour’s roots nor is it honest to the people of the public health system. This is a Budget that throws money everywhere but does not provide the care or attention needed to provide a decent health system in this country. Is this a Budget that says we have limits on our capacity in the public system so let us use the independent sector to provide more care in our hospitals and more care for New Zealanders? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: No. Is this a Government that has decided that it wants to support the work of non-governmental organisations? No. Is this a Government that says it wants to keep pace with inflation and the cost of drugs and put more money into Pharmac? No.