Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:670;Page:17258] 
8. 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does he favour the sale of any public hospitals in New Zealand; if so which one or ones? 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 The Government is not interested in selling public hospitals as the Government is committed to growing and protecting the New Zealand public health services. However that does not prevent existing buildings from being sold if a hospital moves to a better facility—one that is better for patients. In Queenstown for example I am advised that the Southern District Health Board is looking at a number of options for improving services including co-location on the existing hospital site or co-location on a new site in Queenstown. 
Grant Robertson 
: Did he tell the Southern District Health Board chief executive Brian Rousseau that he supported the sale of Lakes District Hospital if a privately run medical centre was developed in its place in Queenstown? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: No. The Queenstown district is one of the fastest-growing parts of New Zealand and is expecting an increasing demand particularly from older people. Meeting this growing demand will require significant financial resources and the smart cooperation of the public and private services. As the Southern District Health Board works through the options I am sure there will continue to be more publicly provided hospital services in Queenstown in the future. 
Grant Robertson 
: Given that answer was Mr Rousseau not telling the truth when he told local councillors on 3 March that he had the Minister’s support for the sale of the hospital if a privately run medical centre was developed in Queenstown in its place? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I cannot verify what Mr Rousseau actually said. But I can tell the member that the Government has made it very clear to the Southern District Health Board that we think there need to be improved services for the people of Queenstown. They have been talking about that for—it must be—almost 20 years and it is time the board got on with it. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: What additional public hospital buildings has this Government invested in over the past 2 years? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The Government has approved more than a dozen hospital capital projects totalling more than $500 million in the last 2 years: the Waikato Hospital acute medical precinct at $30 million; Middlemore Hospital future growth at $200 million; Lakeview emergency care centre at North Shore at $48 million; Dunedin Hospital and Wakari Hospital upgrades at $24 million; Greenlane surgical centre at $24 million; Whakatane Hospital at $65 million; and on Friday $80 million for a new Taranaki Base Hospital was announced. 
Grant Robertson 
: What guarantee can he give to Queenstown residents that their health services will be affordable when the Queenstown Medical Centre is the driving force behind the privately run medical centre that is planned to replace the hospital and when that centre is responsible for some of the highest after-hours medical fees in the country including a $102 fee for a baby for an after-hours visit? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That compares with some $200 when Labour was in office according to  
Hansard 
. The guarantee that I would give to the people of Queenstown is that the district health board is currently consulting on a number of options one of which is the co-location of services on the Queenstown hospital site. The other option is the co-location of services on a new modern facility yet to be determined. Co-location was not uncommon under Labour with private providers working alongside public services at Wairau Hospital Wanganui Hospital Hawera Hospital and Middlemore Hospital. Indeed at Wairarapa Hospital there is a private hospital working in the public hospital and the MidCentral District Health Board provides public health and mental health outpatient clinics out of a private hospital in Dannevirke. That was done under Labour. 
Grant Robertson 
: Will he follow through on his commitment that clinical leadership should be “from boardroom to bedside” and ask the Southern District Health Board to take notice of the recommendations of the overwhelming majority of the clinical advisory group on the Queenstown proposal who oppose the board’s plan to have a privately run centre? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The Government’s commitment to clinical leadership speaks volumes in the results that we are delivering for the people of the Southern District Health Board with record levels of elective surgery faster cancer treatment and faster emergency departments.