Woodhouse Michael: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Woodhouse Michael: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11032] 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) 
: 
 I wonder whether I am in a time warp because of all of the speeches we have heard from the Labour side on the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill 80 to 90 percent of them have been talking about things that happened 18 years ago. It is a huge compliment to the Government and this Minister of Health that not a single bad word could be said about what has happened over the last 18 months. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: I found some. 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE 
: Mr Lees-Galloway tried but I am afraid it was a pretty weak attempt. 
About 18 months before the 2008 general election the Opposition spokesman on health Tony Ryall went around the country listening sharing and discussing matters relating to health issues and that informed the National Party’s policy going into that election. I was the chief executive of a surgical hospital and president of the Private Surgical Hospitals Association so I was in the unusual position of submitting to that process that informed the party’s policy and then being part of the Government charged with delivering on National’s commitment to provide better and more convenient services sooner. 
I think he was expecting a diatribe on the issues facing the private sector but we did not spend much time at all on that. We focused almost entirely on the issues facing our public system and we agreed on just about all things. We agreed on retention strategies for our young doctors and nurses improving primary care less bureaucracy—let us remember that under the previous Labour Government the number of district health board managers and administrators went up by 50 percent—more elective surgery shorter waiting-times and most important re-engaging clinicians who had become increasingly disenfranchised from the decision-making process as they were wrapped under layer upon layer of bureaucracy. 
But there was one matter that we did not really see eye to eye on at that time and that was structural reform. I thought it was needed but Tony Ryall said no. Although the structure we had may not have been perfect the appetite for such reform was very very low and the National-led Government needed to deliver and focus on service delivery not structural reform. I think that very much informed the National Party’s policy and I am interested in reflecting on what that policy said. It stated that we would continue the growth in health spending we would reduce bureaucracy we would shorten waiting-times and we would ensure that doctors nurses and other health professionals would have a say on what was going on in their health services. We would improve maternity we would provide more services to at-risk mums and we would bond doctors and nurses to keep them here for longer. Well that has a pretty familiar ring to it because all of those things have been done and they have been done without a single change in the legislation. 
So this bill is not about a major restructure of the health system; it is about some minor adjustments that will continue the Government’s relentless path towards improving clinical service delivery. I think the planning frameworks and the collaboration proposals are extremely sound. But the one that I am really very interested in and encouraged by is the establishment of the Health Quality and Safety Commission. I am not sure whether it was Ms Dyson or Mr Lees-Galloway who somehow tried to— 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Ms Dyson. 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE 
: Ms Dyson tried to say that it was somehow inconsistent with what the Health and Disability Commissioner was doing. Frankly it is a completely different thing. I see no crossover there except to the extent that the Health and Disability Commissioner does step in when things go wrong and does have an educative role. This is a much much different beast. It will continue the really good work that has been going on in our district health boards and in particular the Counties Manukau District Health Board which has taken the lead on a number of excellent quality initiatives. I look forward to that improving and continuing with the establishment of the Health Quality and Safety Commission. 
This is a really good bill and it continues the Government’s efforts in health service delivery. I commend it to the House.