11. Question No. 11—HealthMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 11—Health11. MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri) to the Minister of Health: When he said of his flagship $455 million new frontline mental health service it's quite impressive how quickly these things have rolled out" was he referring to the $20 million of the $455 million spent on services at that time or the 18 new sites delivering the service at that time?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I was referring to the more than 20000 sessions of free mental health support that had been delivered as a result of the new service which is already available at 40 primary-care sites across 11 DHB regions. We know these services are making a real difference to people's lives. I was also referring to the fact that we are training entirely new workforces to deliver these services which are being rolled out across New Zealand over five years making free mental health support accessible to all through GP clinics iwi and Pacific providers youth one-stop shops and via online and tele. Matt Doocey: In light of the Minister's answer in reference to the 40 sites how can the Minister be confident that those 40 sites are operating when in response to written questions Nos 10699 10693 and 10690 the Minister was unable to answer where the 40 sites are located when they started seeing patients or how many staff they're employing?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: The recent investment of $40 million to expand integrated primary mental health and addiction services to over 100 sites providing coverage to approximately 1.5 million New Zealanders will include 350 full-time equivalents of health improvement practitioners health coaches and support workers. These services will be rolled out by July 2021. By the end of July 2020 we expect at least 54 sites to have started delivering integrated primary mental health and addiction services. These sites are located across 11 DHB regions. Each of these sites will have access to support from both health improvement practitioners and health coaches. Since the member asked me this specific question yesterday I have obtained a breakdown by DHBs as to where they will be located and my office is happy to provide that to him if he wishes.Matt Doocey: When the Minister made his Anzac Day announcement of a further 100 sites for his flagship new front-line mental health service—"By the middle of next year the programme will be fully rolled out"—why did the Ministry of Health issue their own press release stating these sites would not be rolled out until the end of next year six months later?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Could the member please repeat the question?Matt Doocey: When the Minister made his Anzac Day announcement of a further 100 sites for his flagship new front-line mental health service—"By the middle of next year the programme will be fully rolled out"—why did the Ministry of Health issue their own press release stating these sites will not be rolled out until the end of next year six months later?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I have not seen that press release. However I can very happily—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Do members want a reply or not?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: What's that sorry?SPEAKER: Keep going.Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I can very happily inform the member that we are an ambitious Government and we intend to have it rolled out earlier rather than later.Matt Doocey: Has the Minister delivered the level of service promised to New Zealanders in Budget 2019 when his flagship new front-line mental health service has failed to spend its allocated funding and has been delivered in less than 3 percent of general practices to date?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I do want to push back quite strongly on the member's framing there. Yesterday I informed him that there was $48.1 million of funding available this year to distribute. Of course we have had some COVID interruptions but $39 million of that roughly is already distributed and it's likely that the full allocation will be distributed this year. Those things are still being discussed in contract negotiations. It will either be this year or next year that the remaining portion is negotiated. So actually despite COVID the officials have worked very very hard to roll this programme out as well as—on top of that—rolling out a psycho-social support programme during the lockdown that has provided a range of services including the Mentemia app which went to already 35000 downloads; the Melon app which had over 1000 people sign up in just 10 days; the Getting Through Together website which has had 34000 unique visitors to 23 April; and Sparklers at Home which has had 47900 unique visitors to 23 April. This Government is proud of taking mental health seriously and is rolling out new services. I haven't yet mentioned Mana Ake Piki and of course the nurses in schools which were all done before this initiative. We will pit our record on mental health service provision on this side of the House against those in the Opposition any day of the week. Matt Doocey: In light of the Minister's response about his mental health record why when access to mental health and addiction services increased by 55 percent from 2009 to 2018—demonstrated by this graph from the Mental Health Commissioner's report this week—is the Minister refusing to put on record how much access he will increase under his Government? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: In select committee yesterday we canvassed this conversation and what the member was trying to imply was that we were going to limit services when this is a programme that is aimed at rolling out services to ensure every single New Zealander has access to free mental health and addiction services. It is our hope that that will be required by fewer rather than more people but we want to make it accessible to all New Zealanders. Matt Doocey: If access to mental health and addiction services increased by 55 percent under the last National Government how much will his Government commit to today to increasing access to those valuable services? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: We want free mental health and addiction services available to all people with mild to moderate mental health addictions. We want everybody—every New Zealander—to have access to those services. That's what we want on this side of the House. Matt Doocey: Is the Minister confident that his flagship new front-line mental health service will not follow KiwiBuild and light rail as the next failure from this Government; if not why not? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Oh I reject the premise of the member's question. But what I would say is that this Government is absolutely committed to taking mental health seriously. It is the first Government to make such a huge commitment to these services. We're proud of that fact. We don't shy away from the challenge that's in it because they have been neglected for a long time as have our health services more generally. But we're stepping up to the plate because we want to make sure New Zealanders can access the services they need."