Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Scott Lynda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:12713] 
9.  
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: What action is she taking to ensure our hospital accident and emergency departments are safe when the Ministry of Health’s district health board scorecard quarterly report shows that 17 out of 21 district health boards’ emergency-response times are not up to scratch? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 The information now available on emergency departments is the first real information provided on how well emergency departments are performing in New Zealand. This information is also publicly available. Although the measurement tool will need refining we are now able to benchmark for improvement. As a result each district health board is now undertaking measures to address shortfalls in the workforce physical environment etc.—such as the actions taken by the Hutt Valley board and the excellent work being done by the Waikato board. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: What is happening to our accident and emergency departments around the country when Canterbury District Health Board’s accident and emergency patients are banked up in corridors several times a week seriously compromising patient safety; the Hutt Valley has an accident and emergency department described by the board chairman as the weakest link in the hospital; Wairau Public Hospital staff say the accident and emergency department is running on the bones of its backside; the Palmerston North Hospital has accident and emergency patients waiting in corridors; Wellington Hospital’s top emergency department specialist has resigned; and Waikato Hospital’s emergency department should have been upgraded years ago? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Taking the last point first it is true that a lot of renovation needs to go on in our emergency departments—work that was not done years ago. This week the Hutt Valley District Health Board announced that it will be doing renovations to its department. A lot of work is going on in emergency departments. The reason we know they need to improve is now we do look at the data; we collect the data and we tell the public about it. 
Dave Hereora 
: How well do New Zealand emergency departments compare internationally? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Emergency departments around the world are always under pressure but the Commonwealth Fund—an independent research organisation—has identified New Zealand’s emergency departments as amongst the best of those in the five countries whose departments it compared. It compared the departments of the United Kingdom Canada the United States Australia and New Zealand. We should applaud the work that our district health boards are doing but I think we can have much better results. 
Judy Turner 
: Does the Minister agree with the comment made by Michael Ardagh professor of emergency medicine in Christchurch that patients’ safety which is already jeopardised by overstretched resources increasing demand staff shortages and poor facilities will be further threatened by the inevitable increase in pressure that winter brings; if so what is she doing to address this? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The Canterbury District Health Board is doing a considerable amount to address the overcrowding and this week I met with the board and some of its clinicians. The member will be pleased to know that following that meeting Professor Ardagh said: “The issue of emergency department overcrowding is an international one. Compared with other countries Canterbury is performing well. Canterbury’s recent problems give us an opportunity to provide solutions.” 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Could the Minister explain what she is trying to hide by not actioning two requests from the Health Committee and four requests by me under the Official Information Act to release the latest quarterly balance scorecard report on district health boards given that we know that a previous report has shown that 17 out of 21 district health board accident and emergency departments are not up to scratch? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The member is poorly informed. I do not release the balance scorecards; they are released by the district health boards. It is their data and they release it. They collect it and they release it publicly. They never had balance scorecards under the National Party Government so they had no information to release to the public. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Is the Minister proud that a whopping two of the 21 district health boards have achieved pass marks; and why does the Minister bother to conduct reviews which cost time money and effort on behalf of our staff into the performance of district health boards when such disgraceful results have brought no action by this Minister? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I can only assume from those comments that the member does not believe there ought to be reviews into actions and activities of district health boards. I totally disagree with her. Thank goodness we did have the Stent report in the 1990s to show what her National Government did to that hospital! I am pleased to say that Professor Ardagh has said that Canterbury is nowhere near the crisis it had in the 1990s. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Under Standing Order 361 relating to the Minister quoting from a document I ask her to table the document because she referred to the latest information now available and I have no access to the information on the latest balance scorecard. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If the Minister is quoting from an official document— 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No I am not quoting from an official document.