7. Question No. 7—HealthHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of Health: What national health target if any does the Government have for elective surgical procedures for the financial year ending 30 June 2019 and will it meet that target?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): The Government does not have a national health target for elective surgical procedures. That said district health boards (DHBs) have been contracted to deliver 200895 elective surgical procedures in the current financial year. I'm advised that as at the end of March DHBs were reported to be at 98 percent of planned levels.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Well why then does the Ministry of Health's own website in a page entitled Health targets:" say "What is the target? The volume of elective surgery will be increased by an average of 4000 discharges per year."?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I don't have access to that particular page. It may be cached on his computer or it may be one that's live that needs updating. But what I can say is that we're striving to address the contracted volumes because we acknowledge that some procedures have been postponed or otherwise moved due to the industrial action that was under way. I'm happy to report that there's been a great deal of progress on industrial action which is of course addressing years of underfunding by the previous Government. In the example of the nurses their settlement was worth more than all three done under the previous Government combined. We're addressing a historic underfunding in the sector and even still hoping to get to a point where we deliver on those contracted volumes. Indeed DHBs have plans in place to improve their elective performance.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Does he agree with Ministry of Health figures that show that the 105378 elective procedures completed by DHBs as at the end of March are almost 6500 fewer than those required even to get to last year's activity level and 9500 fewer than those required to meet the extra 4000 target?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I don't accept the member's numbers.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Which part of the question does he not accept?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: The numbers I've seen the members opposite use are ones that don't align with the historic reporting of elective targets under the previous Government. They are not comparing apples with apples. Statistics are to be used in a way that illuminates rather than misleads and I believe there are better ways of presenting the material that actually gives a clearer picture of what's happening.Hon Michael Woodhouse: So is the Minister saying to patients waiting for cardiothoracic surgery that there won't be 300 fewer of those cases performed in this financial year and to those waiting for orthopaedic surgery that there won't be 1500 fewer of those operations performed this year?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: What I would say is that DHBs are working hard to ensure that contracted volumes are delivered. There are some anomalies with the data. The system that we inherited is certainly not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The investment in health infrastructure was also neglected under the previous Government. But I am encouraged to see an increase in non-admitted procedures which are up by 2 percent compared with the previous year. Procedures are now being done in an environment often more convenient for the patient and actually more cost-effective for the sector. So we're getting away from the distorted incentives that were in there previously that had Avastin injections and skin lesion removals often done in more expensive settings just to pump up Government statistics. This is a Government that's committed to ensuring New Zealanders get the care they need and deserve rather than pumping up the statistics for political gain."