Dowie Sarah: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDowie Sarah: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10850. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you very much Mr Deputy Speaker for this short call on the second reading of this bill the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill. I am actually very positive and very happy and very pleased to be taking this call because this is an opportunity for the good people of the Waitaki and this is an opportunity for the good people of Clutha for the good people of Southland and of Otago to get quality sustainable health-care provided throughout our district. That opportunity should not be sniffed at and I am actually very very excited about it.The Southern District Health Board’s issues have been well documented for a number of years. In fact for the last 13 or 14 years it has posted deficits. Despite the Opposition trying to rewrite history about that we are now the Government that is getting to the bottom of these issues and making sure that the commissioner team will provide our people with a sustainable and quality health-care system moving forward. The penultimate of these deficits was forecast this year at $42 million—despite the fact that the Southern District Health Board did receive extra funding of $134 million—and that is unacceptable. Although the Opposition wants to rewrite history we are sticking to the facts.When I first took office as the MP for Invercargill in 2014 my constituency inquiries with regard to district health board issues tracked at about 11 percent. And if you look at all of the Government departments that MPs deal with—the wide-ranging issues that relate to central government—that is quite significant. That is considerable. And it is certainly not a reflection on front-line staff—the good kind doctors and nurses who are providing quality health-care on the front line—but it is to do more with system failures and administrative failures and that the district health board could not provide clear sustainable management of its services. So something had to be done and the Minister of Health obviously intervened and put a commissioner team in place—a commissioner team with skills—which would come in and look at the system and look to provide that sustainable health-care moving forward.Despite Ms Curran’s analysis of the In Your Shoes workshops I was happy to attend them in March in Invercargill; a series of workshops that the commissioners put together to hear from patients and from staff as to the failings of the district health board. I can tell you that as I sat there listening to the patients and talking to the staff there was a clear form of relief in that room—a strong sense of relief that these people were finally being listened to and that the commissioners were taking on board what those failings were and had a clear plan to rectify the systems that needed to be rectified and provide quality health-care in the Southern District Health Board region. I want to pay tribute to Mr Tim Keogh who facilitated those workshops. They were very well run and it was fabulous to see people engaging and committed to that process.Look the ocean liner is starting to turn the commissioner team needs more time and there certainly is in my region a sense of optimism about where the district health board can go and where it can end up. I want to end by sharing a constituent issue. I spoke to a nurse who works at the district health board and she said to me that in respect of the direction the commissioners are taking the district health board in this is the first time that she has felt optimistic in 10 years. I think that is really good. That is wonderful for our people and I cannot wait to see the result and see quality health-care being provided to all of the wonderful people of the Southern District Health Board region.