Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:631;Page:3464] 
8.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: What is the latest estimate of how many patients will have their specialist appointment or operation disrupted as a result of strikes by radiation therapists and junior doctors and what will happen to these patients? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) 
: 
 District health boards advise that more than 10000 patients will have their specialist appointments or operations postponed should both strikes proceed. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What did the Minister mean when he told district health board chief executives earlier this year that the Government has an appetite for industrial action in the health sector this year? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I have never made any such comment. 
Ann Hartley 
: Does the Government agree that an average working week of 55 to 58 hours needs to be addressed and is that not a feature of the junior doctors’ claim? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Yes the Government does agree—which is why the Doctors in Training Workforce Roundtable was established last year. The number of hours worked by registered medical officers has fallen steeply in recent years but it can fall further. The issue at the heart of this debate is how to do that and the choices appear to be either to reduce rigidities in the system or to seek to increase further the number of junior doctors. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What advice or parameters has the Government given district health boards or their negotiators dealing with the junior doctors’ strike? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: There are no parameters offered by the Government and the key piece of advice for all parties is to remain within New Zealand’s industrial law. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What is the Government’s preference: to get the extra junior doctors needed to cover the hours released by reducing the working hours of junior doctors or to deal with the rigidities in the contract? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I think it needs to be acknowledged that 10000 New Zealanders will have their out-patient appointments or surgical interventions postponed if this strike proceeds and I regret that. I urge both parties if they can see the possibility of a way forward to resolve the issue before the strike begins on Thursday. If the strike is to proceed—and that seems to be distinctly possible—then of course all lifesaving procedures will occur nonetheless because the law requires that. 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: When hospital nurses won a 20 to 30 percent pay increase did the Minister really expect that other health professionals would settle for 3 percent and did the Government not foresee that it was triggering a domino effect of industrial action? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: The member will be aware that in the case for example of physiotherapists significant pay increases have been awarded since the nurses’ settlement. However in the case of radiation therapists and resident medical officers district health boards are of the view that their significant pay increase preceded those for nurses by some years. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why have things got so bad on this Minister’s watch that he has caused a domino effect of strife throughout the health sector where the radiotherapists are on strike the junior doctors are on the verge of a nationwide strike pharmacy negotiations are in trouble and general practitioners are rebelling against the Government’s plans to control their businesses; why is it all now such a mess when Annette King kept it so quiet? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: This Government faces a range of challenges and vicissitudes every week and has done so for 6½ years and always attempts to approach its challenges with common sense and equanimity a couple of features that I would commend to the member who seems easily riled.