Hutchison Paul: Budget Debate 
Hutchison Paul: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:20821] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 It is somewhat dismal to hear the Labour Party fearmongering once again when in health over the last 5 years it has overtly failed. [ 
Interruption 
] There is an unmitigated cacophony coming from the back benches and the Minister Annette King is not even in her own seat. In this year’s appropriations an extra $824 million—or 9.3 percent—over last year’s amount is going into health. At a superficial glance one may indeed think that that is good. It probably would be good if this Labour Government did not have the dismal record of pouring $3.3 billion extra into health with no measurable improved outcomes. The public of New Zealand showed what they thought about health spending in yesterday’s  
New Zealand Herald 
. A survey showed that 73.8 percent of New Zealanders believe that hospitals are offering the same or worse services than when Labour came into office in 1999. Despite $3.3 billion more being spent on health 38.3 percent of respondents considered the health services in New Zealand to be worse than ever before. That was reported just yesterday. 
Hon Annette King 
: Baloney! 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: The Minister says: “Baloney!”. Labour and the Minister of Health have presided over massive bureaucracy gross inefficiency and unfulfilled expectations in the area of health. As I said before Labour’s record is of massive spending but of no measurable improvement in outcomes. 
Let us look at that record. What have we had over the last 5 years? There has been a 40 percent increase in sickness and invalids beneficiaries. Now let us look at this statistic: infant mortality has plateaued over the last 5 years. I think the Minister should listen to this: infant mortality which normally has a downward trend has actually plateaued over the last 5 years. That is very very serious. That information has just been published by Statistics New Zealand. Not one chief executive officer of a district health board has been able to tell me in the Health Committee when I have asked whether he or she could measure or demonstrate any improved outcomes in health under Labour—not one. Labour promised the earth in health while in Opposition during the 1990s and during its 5-year term in Government it has just failed to deliver improved outcomes in health. What has Labour done? It has increased the bureaucracy. 
What has happened this week? We heard at the weekend that breast-screening patients aged 45 to 50 who were promised by Mrs King that they would have breast screening are waiting 2 to 3 years before the screening occurs. Last week the hospital benchmark information report showed that 14 out of 21 district health boards failed to see seriously ill patients within the recommended time. Those are patients who “have a potential or imminent threat to ‘life or limb’”. Those are patients with suspected heart attacks massive bleeding and serious head injuries. Fourteen out of 21 district health boards failed to achieve the triage times expected of them and that is how it has been for the last 3 years. [ 
Interruption 
] We hear again that cacophony of unmitigated warbling from the Minister of Health. She is not willing to accept the fact that 14 out of the 21 district health boards failed to achieve satisfactory triage times. 
All the money that Dr Michael Cullen Mrs King and Miss Clark—the grand designer of the Labour system—have poured into health has been sucked up by Mrs King’s bureaucracy. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I refer members to Speakers’ ruling 56/1. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: In 2001 Mrs King said that when funding was devolved to the 21 district health boards from the Ministry of Health the ministry would reduce in size by 25 percent. What is the reality? It has increased in size by 25 percent—from 900 to 1100 employees. I ask Mrs King what improved health outcome has come from the massive bureaucracy she has created. 
Hon Annette King 
: There were 500 people in the Health Funding Authority. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: That is absolutely right. Mrs King has answered a parliamentary question for me and admitted that in the last 5 years the number of employees in the Ministry of Health has increased from 900 to 1100 - plus and not one improved health outcome has come from that. 
Let us now look at the 76 primary health organisations. Yesterday a report was released about those organisations. That report from the health services research centre at Victoria University showed that there has been not one improved health outcome. Despite the complex bureaucracy and the millions put in no improved outcome has been shown. Let us take a look at what the research found: “Concerns were also raised by some informants about the targeting of increased funding with claims that it had been imprecise and that money had been ‘wasted’ on those who could afford to pay while affordable care was not as available for some groups who did not meet increased funding criteria.” That is the legacy of the first research on Mrs King’s 76 primary health organisations. 
Hon Annette King 
: Read the rest of it! 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: Well here is another point: “Some were concerned about the moves towards greater perceived control of general practice by government and about the long-term financial implications for themselves and their practices.” For 5 years the Labour Government has bleated that the problems in the health sector were not its fault. It has put in $3.3 billion yet it is perceived by the New Zealand public and it is the reality that the New Zealand health services are worse than they were before Mrs King came into power. 
How have the general practitioners reacted to Mrs King? They have sent her a red letter because she and her ministry have broken good-faith bargaining by cajoling them and by deciding that she would control their prices. That is why she has the red letter. She has let down the primary health care sector that is so important to us. Mrs King and the ministry have broken good faith with general practitioners in the negotiating round. The Labour Government is not prepared to admit the reality of the costs in the primary health care sector. There has been a 20 to 30 percent increase in the award to the nurses. That is absolutely great but then Mrs King has screwed down the general practitioners. She does not realise that in the land of primary health organisations there is a reality of cost. The nurses will have to be paid by the organisations. What does Mrs King do? She screws down their charges. There is no doubt that the agenda of Prime Minister Helen Clark and Annette King is to create a system in New Zealand that is similar to the British National Health Service—one of the most inefficient health services in the world which is characterised by the queuing that we know that Mrs King has chopped. 
I will finish on the topic of waiting lists which has been one of the worst deceptions in the history of New Zealand’s health services. Mrs King was so embarrassed by how bad the waiting lists were in New Zealand in 2003 that she took 25000 patients off the lists and sent them into the community with no certainty that they would ever be treated.