Dyson Ruth: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Dyson Ruth: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9475] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 I am delighted to be able to speak in the debate on the Appropriation (2008/09 Financial Review) Bill on the financial review of the Ministry of Health. I will mention in this debate the new language that has come to the fore when we consider what is happening in the health system. When we look at the services that people are currently receiving that are being cut when we look at the impact of the budget restraints that the Minister of Health is personally imposing on district health boards and when we look at the lack of support that the Minister is giving to the key sector leaders throughout the health system we see there really is a big change. 
The new language of health which the Associate Minister Jonathon Coleman repeated today is extraordinary. We do not have cuts in health services; we just have “changes” in health services. Well he should tell that to the older people in Otago and Southland who are currently receiving 1 or 2 hours’ home support a week which enables them to have quality of life and to be able to stay safely in their own homes in Dunedin or Southland. I say the Associate Minister should tell them that the letter they have just received which says they will no longer receive that home support is not about a cut in health service but is just about a change. A big change for them is that if they want to have that home support any more if they want to have help with their laundry meal preparation or house cleaning they will have to pay for it themselves. That is the change for them but from their point of view they know what the Minister and the Associate Minister have really been saying which is that this is not a change but a cut. 
In the same way the nurses at Nelson Hospital know that the cuts in staff numbers in Nelson’s public hospital are not a change but a cut. The chief executive has been directed personally by the Minister of Health to stop filling any vacancies in nursing positions. What did the Minister promise New Zealand before the 2008 election? He promised that there would be no cuts to front-line services. We cannot get someone who is more front-line than a nurse in a public hospital. The nurses are now speaking out publicly saying patient safety is being put at risk. Patient safety is being put at risk in Nelson Hospital because the Minister of Health has told the chief executive to leave vacancies unfilled. So we have fewer staff but the same number of patients is in the hospital. Nurses are now calling on overworked doctors to help them out and this is all about cutting costs and services which puts patients’ safety at risk. 
The good people of Horowhenua will be very interested to hear Jonathon Coleman the Associate Minister say the cut of 24 patient beds at the Horowhenua Health Centre is not a cut in health services. The centre has only 24 patient beds and 24 beds are being cut. Taking away 24 patient beds is being called just a change. 
This is the new language of health that Tony Ryall and Jonathon Coleman are trying to ram down the throats of the public of New Zealand but they are not having a bar of it. We know particularly as we look through the details in this financial review that those are not changes in health. They are cuts to front-line services and are hurting hard-working New Zealanders. Frankly the most upsetting are the cuts to the services for older people. They have given their lives in the service of our country either in paid employment or in raising their families often serving our country overseas and literally putting their lives on the line for the good of the country. When older people need just 1 or 2 hours a week of home support to keep them safe and living with that little bit of support in their own homes they are told that they will just have to pay for it themselves. That is not good enough and it is certainly not what the older people of New Zealand deserve. Just to cap it off though the older people who live in Southland which is the Minister of Finance’s own electorate have been told that not only is their home support being cut but also there will be a 6-month waiting list for their rest home. That is not good enough for older New Zealanders.