Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:626;Page:21143] 
11.  
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Is she satisfied with the performance of the health system under the current Government given that a recent poll found that 73.8 percent of people believed hospitals are offering the same or worse services as when Labour came into office? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Question No. 11 is almost identical to question No. 1 so for the sake of brevity my answer is the same. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Why should a patient who presents at a New Zealand emergency department with a heart attack massive bleeding or concussion not be seen within the target time frames in 14 out of 21 district health boards given the extra billions of dollars of money that is being poured into health; and how many patients have to die before the Minister takes some responsibility and fixes the problem? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Any patients who present with those conditions should be seen within that time and I believe they are. 
Nanaia Mahuta 
: What recent statistics has the Minister seen in relation to how New Zealanders rate hospital services? 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: We heard that a little while ago. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The member might have heard it but he did not listen. In recent patient satisfaction surveys which I think are probably more accurate than a snapshot poll 88 percent of New Zealanders said they were very satisfied with the services they receive within New Zealand hospitals. That is an improvement I have to say over the last year. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Does the Minister recall her statement made in May 2004 regarding accident and emergency services: “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.”; if so what other than look at this data is she going to do as Minister considering that district health boards have been failing to meet benchmark time frames for triage for over 3 years and that 14 out of 21 district health boards have failed in this quarter? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The benchmark report does report on triage times. The triage times are being looked at by the specialists themselves because the times are reliant on the nurse or doctor recording on a computer the time that a person presents at that time to ensure that the right time has been recorded. That is seen by the specialists as a rather poor measure. However at least we do measure and district health boards intend and try to improve each quarter as they look at the operations they carry out. I think they are committed to improving as this Government is. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: How can she be satisfied with a health system that has failed for 3 years in a row to treat patients in accident and emergency departments within acceptable time frames and that culls thousands of patients from waiting lists; and how can she be satisfied with a primary health system that shows no measurable improvement in health outcomes despite billions of dollars having been poured in over the last 5 years? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: There has certainly been an improvement in health outcomes and I direct the member to the length of time that people are living which has improved under this Government. I would point the member to the number of operations now being carried out and to the number of outpatients now being seen. Most people are seen within the triage times but if a person is seen 1 minute over the time that is recorded then that treatment is recorded as not meeting that triage time. It is not a very accurate measure but at least it is a measure—something we did not have in the past. I have to say this: to date the only health policy we have had from Dr Hutchison is: “We will recreate a list we will put people on a list and then they will feel better.” 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I wish you to refer back to your earlier rulings and also to Speaker’s ruling 147/4 which makes it plain. Every time this Minister gets into a tricky spot and cannot answer the question she starts making things up about National’s policy and that is specifically excluded both in the Standing Orders and in that Speaker’s ruling. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister certainly fully addressed the other parts of the question but that last part was not relevant to the question. The member is correct.