Ryall Tony: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2435] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 It is worth noting that we are talking about the 2007-08 financial review of the Ministry of Health and the period of time subsequent to that. It would be worth reflecting on the fact that during the financial year that is under review the previous Government tabled its budget for the 2008-09 year. What many New Zealanders do not realise is that in the weeks in the run-up to the general election the Labour Government stripped out $150 million from the future funding path in health. Not a lot of people know that—the Labour Government cut $50 million out of the health budget for next year and $100 million out of the indicative funding path for the following year. So a total of $150 million was cut from future health funding by the Labour Government. Not a lot of people know that. 
I give that information to the Committee because one of the biggest challenges we have inherited in the health service is dealing with a track towards financial crisis right across the district health boards. We have indicated to district health boards that although they are getting more money next year like the previous Government we are expecting them to do their level best to improve services for New Zealanders but we are also expecting them to track towards achieving a financial balance over time. But that is made a lot harder by the fact that Labour cut $50 million out of the future health budget for the next financial year and $100 million out of the budget in 2 years’ time. So Labour cut $150 million out of the health budget. 
But having said that I know that district health boards are committed to working constructively with the Government to meet the many challenges that we are facing in the district health board system. Those challenges are very significant. I reckon the biggest challenge we face concerns the workforce—workforce and workforce. The Government is taking action to deal with the health workforce crisis. Not only do we have the voluntary bonding and the increased numbers of general practitioner training places and medical student places but we are also working across the sector to try to find additional places for nursing and other surgical training. 
This Government is committed to increasing the availability of elective surgery through our plan to build dedicated elective surgery centres across the country. The premise of this plan is based on international and national research that shows that if we can split acute or urgent surgery from elective surgery then we will get much better elective surgery performance. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Tell us about health and wellness not just hospitals. The member knows nothing about the value of primary health. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The failed and defrocked member from Rotorua says the issue is not just about hospitals. I have to tell the member that the Government has made it clear that commitment to the Primary Health Care Strategy is important and remains bipartisan. But that is no excuse to allow the intolerable performance that patients have been receiving from our public hospitals in terms of the delays and the frustrations they face. 
That is why the Government is telling cancer patients that it wants to improve cancer treatment waiting times in New Zealand. That is why we are saying to the many patients who front up at emergency departments that we want to improve the timeliness of emergency department performance in New Zealand. That is why the Government also says to the many patients who languish on hospital waiting lists that it wants to improve access to elective surgery. We make no apology for saying that because the message of the election—which the Labour Party never got—is that New Zealanders want improvement in those areas. New Zealanders do want cancer patients to be treated faster than they are currently. What is peculiar is that Mrs Dyson gets up and asks what we are doing about paediatric oncology but in her next breath she asks why we are telling the hospitals to concentrate on cancer treatment waiting times. It does not make sense. That is why she is struggling in her role as the Opposition spokesperson on health. 
 The Government has made it clear that although bipartisan commitment to the Primary Health Care Strategy remains important and we are committed to it we need to improve the waiting times in our public hospitals. The Government is doing that. We have made it very clear to district health boards that we want to work constructively with them to do that because we cannot have a situation where the budget has doubled and the level of service has dropped which is the record of the party opposite when it was in Government. I suspect that what New Zealanders really want from members opposite is an apology for Labour’s performance while running the New Zealand public health service over the last 9 years an apology for neglecting the areas of great priority to New Zealanders and an apology for the fact that those members still cannot accept that failure. 
Report noted.