Kuriger Barbara: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10672. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It was a pleasure to wait for the other Barbara and I have to say that if anyone is in Inglewood next Monday morning there will be two Barbaras speaking in support of breast cancer as well. This National Government is making each health dollar go further. There are 5500 more doctors and nurses with 1000 fewer managers and administrators. What that means for me is there are more people in our community shifting primary health care out to where the people live.An example that I just want to give to you around this today is that the half a million dollars that was put into rural mental health has been widely used in terms of training people to pick up problems and help with cases early before people get to the stage where they need to be in hospital. So it is about more identification and more knowledge around that.I agreed with Kevin Hague when he talked before about the things that we used to do to people with mental health issues in years gone by and I am pleased that we are past that. When I see 480 people coming out in Hāwera to listen to John Kirwan speak on mental health I do believe that the stigma is lifting. So I am really pleased that the community is totally aware of it.Other things are happening in terms of shifting health care out into our communities. This week all of you here in Parliament will have the opportunity to visit on the forecourt the mobile health care units. They are visiting Parliament. I am really pleased to have them here. There will be a lot more than there used to be. We are going to be looking at the mobile breast-screening unit the mobile dental unit and the mobile lithotripsi—and for those of us who do not have medical backgrounds and who are lay people that is about blasting your kidney stones. The mobile surgical unit will be there. I have been lucky enough to watch an operation in that surgical unit and it is an absolutely brilliant concept.But what is actually even more exciting is that there are more technologies in the making. The diagnostic technologies that we are going to be looking at which are traditionally in the realms of hospitals are more and more being brought into our communities. These are things like prostate function; respiratory function; mole-mapping; endoscopy which is about your digestive tract; and skin lesions—those sorts of things. It is going to be a real pleasure to be associated with those surgical buses and health care units that are coming to Parliament.The other thing that is happening this week is that I am opening the Rural Nurses Meeting on Thursday night. It is a real pleasure to be doing that. The Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand is coming to Parliament—and to Wellington as well—and will be talking to us tomorrow. So there is a whole lot going on in our communities that is taking primary health care closer to where people live. You would have heard the Minister of Health talking before about integrated data and people’s health. You know if someone is not doing well is it a health issue is it a learning disability or is it a hearing issue? There is a whole range of things that we can pick up with integrated data.I was very impressed last week when I joined the Prime Minister and the Māori Party in Te Kūiti. We had the Taumarunui Community Kokiri Trust in Te Kūiti demonstrating all the services that it offers but the best service that it actually offers is that when people go in its door they end up with a one-stop service. So this is the beginning of some of those integrated community services. Whether it is a health issue a social support issue or a housing issue people come in very confused about where they need to go. That business has a source of navigators who are totally there to help people work on whichever issue they need to and connect them to the right place so their health and social well-being is taken care of. They also have these wonderful groups of people who go out in their blue T-shirts. They do dancing in the community they are fit they are active and they are working a whole lot on prevention as well as cure.So I am really heartened with what is happening in health and with what I see in my communities. I am very pleased to be standing here in support of the National Government today and I look forward to all the things that are happening. Thank you.Report noted.