Ryall Tony: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2432] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 The previous speaker really is struggling. What we have seen with Ruth Dyson is that she takes an incorrect media report and does a beat-up in order to try to make it the full story. For example she said there had been cuts to elective surgery on the West Coast. But the West Coast District Health Board tells us that there are no cuts to elective surgery on the West Coast. The member then told a story about all the extra money that the previous Labour Government had put into the national travel allowance. Well how come the mileage allowance of 20c a kilometre being paid to people had not increased for 20 years? That is the advice I have received from the Ministry of Health but that is not what the member said. The other week the member talked about the cancellation of the breast-screening unit in the West Coast and Buller areas and she said that women would have to travel. Today she admitted that the service is being reinstated but then she said that the unit is under threat for the next year. She really is struggling. 
Let me educate that member on what her Government’s failed administration did to the New Zealand public health system. After 9 years of doubling the health budget fewer people are receiving elective surgery on a per head of population basis. After 9 years of doubling the health budget there has been only a 0.7 percent increase in the number of people getting a first specialist assessment in a public hospital. After 9 years of doubling the health budget 180 New Zealand men and women were being sent to Australia for cancer treatment. After 9 years of doubling the health budget we have a massive health workforce crisis across the entire public health system. After 9 years of doubling the health budget a whole lot of vulnerable services right across district health boards are hanging by a thread because of the neglect of members opposite when in Government in terms of dealing with those issues. What is worse Labour members stood up and told the country that district health board deficits were only $110 million. We know that those deficits are heading to over $160 million according to the advice I received from district health boards just before Christmas. 
We know that this is going to be a challenging time in health. Not only are we suffering the effects of a workforce crisis that was neglected ignored and denied for 9 years but also we are facing the major financial challenges that are besetting this country. But the Government is taking action. Within weeks we introduced our voluntary bonding scheme which offers student loan write-offs and cash grants to doctors nurses and midwives who agree to work in hard-to-staff areas and communities for up to 5 years. We know that that will make a significant difference. We also acted swiftly to increase the number of general practitioner training places in the wider public health service and we will further increase that number next year. The Government has also announced its plan to increase the number of medical student training places in our universities next year as well. We are taking action to deal with the workforce crisis that we have inherited. 
We have also taken action to deal with some of the major issues that New Zealanders are faced with in the health service. How can the funding double in 9 years yet we end up with fewer services? Well a lot of it is to do with the unchecked massive growth in bureaucracy in the New Zealand public health system where the number of managers and administrators grew by 25 percent over that 9-year period—from 8000 to 10500. That increase is a huge burden on the public health service and it will take a while to fix the problem as we move resources from the back office to the front line. 
This Government is determined that it will not have a doubling of the health budget and fewer people getting care. It just does not make sense. This Government is determined to work with our district health boards and our front-line doctors and nurses in order to improve the services that New Zealanders have. When the Budget is tabled in Parliament in a month or so New Zealanders will see that this is a Government that they can trust with the New Zealand public health service. It is a Government that is committed to improving the services that New Zealanders receive and improving those front-line health services that are so important to our communities.