Blue Jackie: General Debate 
Blue Jackie: General Debate 
[Volume:634;Page:6097] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 Last Tuesday when I arrived at Parliament I was told by our senior whip Lindsay Tisch that a really important bill would be introduced the most important bill that he had ever experienced certainly in the 7 years that he had been in Parliament. He was right! It was not because it was a wonderful bill or altruistic or selfless or an example of a great Government working for its people. It was none of the above. It was the worst bill ever and probably the worst I will experience in my time in Parliament. It was the absolute opposite of a wonderful bill. I sat through 2 days of appalling self-serving arguments justifying why this cowardly Government overspent its election budget then tried to validate its overspending. Well it did validate it. It passed the bill. I was ashamed that this Parliament which I have come to to serve was so sullied by such a bill. 
 But I say to colleagues that I was not alone. New Zealanders are angry. The whole of New Zealand is angry about this bill. It is discussed on radio talkback. If we talk to people in the street or meet them at local meetings they talk about it. They are very angry and they will not forget how this shameful legislation was rammed through at breakneck speed without even the by-your-leave of a select committee to which the public could make their submissions. Shame on this Government—shame shame shame! 
All the while while this Government has been distracted from its core business while this Government has been fiddling and stealing taxpayers’ money the whole of the health sector has been slowly disintegrating in front of us. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member made an inappropriate reference to members of the parliamentary Labour Party and I ask that you ask her to withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: If the member said anything inappropriate I ask her to desist in future and to come to the point of the debate. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: I withdraw and apologise. Just a few days ago regarding the health sector this stunning  
Annual Report 2005/06 including The Health Independence Report 
 was released. An amazing press release came out with it. It was so full of spin I was dizzy; I felt sick actually. I read through the press release and through some of the statements. One of them was: “Overall patient satisfaction ratings show that New Zealanders believe that the health services they receive are very good.” One has to wonder who the hell they asked to do that questionnaire. Did they ask the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who have been culled off waiting lists for data-cleansing purposes? 
Hon David Carter 
: They’re probably too sick to be asked. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: That is right. Did they ask the New Zealanders who are missing out on the crucial drugs that will keep them well and out of hospital? Did they ask the demoralised and striking health workforce? Did they ask the women who are desperately trying to fund-raise to pay for Herceptin to keep themselves alive for their children and their families? Did they ask the New Zealanders who do not have access to a general practitioner particularly in rural New Zealand? Did they ask the rural general practitioners who are so overworked and burnt out that they are packing their bags and leaving in protest? 
Here is another doozy. Here is another quote from this wonderful spin: “People are being treated earlier and are less likely to require hospitalisation.” Time and time again it is just the opposite and we have proved it on the National side. The exact opposite is happening. The culling of tens of thousands of people off hospital waiting lists for data-cleansing purposes means that people will get more sick and need more complex operations. It is false economy. 
It is also about what the report does not state. This wonderful book mentions that the hospital mortality rates are reduced but it does not talk about the adverse effects suffered by patients. Just in July this year a  
New Zealand Medical Journal 
 article stated that 13 percent of patients admitted to acute care hospitals are associated with an adverse event. Dr Seddon who wrote the article said that 750 deaths are due to preventable medical errors. 
Very shortly after that I received an email from a concerned doctor who stated that yes it was all very well to have a workforce that is demoralised but what would turn it round would be excellent morale healthy incomes excellent ongoing education and adequate numbers of staff being rostered. This is not happening in our current hospitals. New Zealand has a health workforce that is so low in morale that health workers are leaving. They have no job satisfaction and they are not staying in New Zealand. They are going across the Tasman. Every time Australia has a deficit in its workforce it advertises in New Zealand for general practitioners for locums for specialists and off they go.