Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:631;Page:3621] 
1. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: What reports if any has he received on the implications of Government policy for patients needing elective surgery? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Associate Minister of Health) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Health 
: The Minister has received many reports both oral and written over many months on Government elective surgery policy. These include reports stating that the number of elective surgery procedures has increased by 12.6 percent on a case-weighted basis under this Government and by more than that when outpatient procedures are taken into account; and reports of a 24 percent increase in hip replacements and a 52 percent increase in knee replacements. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why are patients with serious skin cancers being told that their tumours must get bigger and worse before they can get any treatment; and can the Minister have any idea of what it must feel like for people to have a skin cancer eating into their face only to be told that the tumour must get worse before they get any treatment and that they will be culled off the waiting list anyway? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I am advised that the present system is a vast improvement on the one that a National Government implemented in the 1990s and that no Government in recent times has invested more in the public health system than this one. If anyone in New Zealand believes that Tony Ryall is going to lead any kind of party into Parliament on the back of massive tax cuts and improve the public health system he or she has to be dreaming. 
Ann Hartley 
: What reports has he received about the district health board waiting list action? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I have received a report of suggestions made by Mr Tony Ryall that boards should ensure as far as possible that people are cared for; involve specialists and general practitioners in priority setting; encourage general practitioners to do more minor procedures; and use private health facilities as appropriate. That is a perfect description of what district health boards are doing right now. The only thing he did not suggest was that the Government should continue its financial investment in health open new hospitals and operating theatres and enable district health boards to employ additional specialists—all of which this Government is doing as we speak. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Given that New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world and that the Government is telling New Zealanders to be sun-smart to prevent getting skin cancer why if someone gets it is he or she told that the cancer tumour must grow and become worse before the person will even be considered for treatment and why are those patients being culled from the waiting list under that Government’s edict? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I am advised that the prioritisation system that has been implemented now is the best that the public hospital system has ever had. There is one kind of egregious presentation that I have always abhorred as a member of this Parliament—that is someone shroud-waving against the indignity that some people may be suffering and trying to make cheap political capital out of it. 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: What would the Minister tell Aletia Hudson aged 33 who was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at Christmas last year had a mastectomy was promised a breast reconstruction in a timely way has since completed chemotherapy and radiotherapy fund-raised $12000 for taxane chemotherapy and should be starting lifesaving Herceptin treatment this month but has not because she cannot raise the $100000 needed only to find out last week that her breast reconstruction operation was no longer possible? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: Of course I am not aware of that individual case. But what I will— 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: You should be. 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: Oh I should be! Oh really! Gee whiz I would like to be over there one day—[ 
Interruption 
] Unfortunately for the Opposition that will not be until after I am dead because I would be better over there dead than any of them are alive! [ 
Interruption 
] 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Members have had the clearing of the lungs. As they know barracking is not permitted though interjections are. Will the Minister start again. 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: There will be a time when members opposite who ask silly questions will be required to answer them when they are on this side of the House. Individual cases will be considered if details are provided and not shroud-waved here. All I say to the member is that she may be interested to know that in the last 12 months there have been 100000 cases of elective surgery in this country. Very few of them can happen under a Government that gives away $10 billion in tax cuts as that member’s party has promised to do. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does he agree that exhausted doctors working excessively long hours—12 days without a break 16-hour shifts 7-hour night shifts for 10 days and so forth—will inevitably make mistakes and contribute to the number of adverse events in our hospitals which already cost 30c in every health dollar or $890 million a year; and does he agree that if we reduce the hours that doctors work and hence the number of adverse events we would have more funding for elective surgery primary health care and illness prevention? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: I always feel some sympathy for people who work long hours. I feel sorry for most of the people around here who work long hours too. But in truth it will not be by grandstanding in this House about doctors’ issues that we will get any improvement; it will be by first improving the resource base available to the public health sector which this Government is doing and by making sure that people fully comprehend that if any party promises to improve the public health system of New Zealand by cutting $10 billion off the Government’s revenue then people deserve what they get if they believe that. 
Dr Jackie Blue 
: Does the Minister sleep well at night knowing that there are women all around New Zealand who have been cruelly denied breast reconstruction operations which were promised to them and does he agree that this is just one more example of a public health system that is falling apart and failing New Zealanders? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: What I do know is that prioritising the most urgent cases and doing them in that order on the advice of senior clinicians is a whole lot better than taking advice from any National Party politician in this House. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: How serious does the Government consider this: in Auckland only the most serious skin cancers are being dealt with; children with congenital birth defects are being routinely turned away; in the Hutt there is a wholesale dumping of skin cancer patients; and in the Associate Minister’s own area of Canterbury skin cancer patients are waiting 5 months to see a specialist then another 3 months until their worsening tumours are dealt with? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: The member quotes some figures that he would claim support his case. We will have to see whether that is true. But he does not quote figures like a 75 percent increase in angioplasty since the change in Government. He does not quote a 50 percent increase in knee replacements or a 24 percent increase in hip replacements because it does not suit his shroud-waving approach to health. This Government deals with the realities of health care puts its money where its mouth is and carries out over 100000 elective surgical procedures a year which is more than anything ever dreamt of when we last had a National Government. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I seek leave to table a health board document that shows the state that skin cancer patients now have to be in to get any treatment under this Government. 
Document not tabled.