Dyson Ruth: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Dyson Ruth: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:662;Page:10243] 
5. 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does he stand by all his statements on health services? 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Yes including the statement that the Labour Government doubled the health budget and got a lot less for it. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Why would 80-year-old Mr Desmond Peat—an ex - Royal Navy serviceman who contracted polio after his war service has had his left leg amputated has a fused left wrist is on the waiting list for a heart bypass operation and has just had his 1½ hours of home support cut—give any credence to the Minister’s statements on health? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: If the member was to bring that case to me I would be prepared to look into it as I have done for her colleagues. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: What has embarrassed him more: his colleague the Minister for Senior Citizens John Carter threatening Grey Power over its involvement in the Labour-Green aged-care inquiry; or his colleague Jo Goodhew refusing to comment on the distress of Ruby Martin an 86-year-old woman who cannot kneel hang out her washing or lift anything heavy and who has just had her home support cut? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I have never ever been embarrassed by those two colleagues which is not something that members opposite say about the person who asked the question. 
Nicky Wagner 
: What statements has the Minister seen about methods for assessing home support for the elderly? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I have read Grey Power’s recent lobby report which reports that its representatives met with Ruth Dyson. They reported in relation to Mrs Dyson and home care: “She is totally against assessing by telephone and has stated that the only way to assess a person is to visit them in their homes to see firsthand how they are coping.” That is very interesting because it was Ms Dyson’s Government that formalised telephone assessments in a pilot scheme in 2006 and further voted substantial public money to roll it out nationally in the 2008 Budget. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: How does he reconcile his statements on putting clinicians at the centre of the health system with the list recently published by senior doctors of examples where there has been no clinical input at all into significant health decisions? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I am very well aware that clinicians throughout New Zealand are responding to the opportunities that this Government is encouraging in order to give them a much greater say in the running of the public health service. That response is reflected up and down the country where many nurses in particular are taking responsibility for the way that they organise their wards. They find they are spending much more time caring for patients than they ever did under the mismanagement of the previous Government. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: How does he reconcile his statement that integrated family health centres were already available in Auckland with his heralding of these centres as new and innovative? Why is he demanding the establishment of centres to open when in his own words these centres already exist? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I think that when we look at the word “embarrassment” and the question just asked members will find it quite difficult to understand the question. I interpret her as saying that the need to consolidate general practice and to provide services for New Zealanders is something the Government supports and I say that we will be seeing a lot more of that over the next couple of years. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Despite your earlier request Mr Speaker that members not seek leave to table information from a newspaper article when I referred to the plight of Mr Desmond Peat the Minister implied he had no knowledge of it and therefore on that basis only I seek leave to table the letter from Mr Peat published 2 weeks ago in the  
Otago Daily Times 
 that outlines the situation he is in. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not think Otago is a backblock of New Zealand. We will not be seeking leave for that. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: I seek leave to table the speech given by Mr Ian Powell to the Australian Medical Association called “Challenging times uncertain directions” which outlined his concern and that of senior doctors at the lack of clinical input into significant health decisions. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.