Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2011. Volume:675;Page:20890. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
6. 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Are district health boards being funded sufficiently to maintain the level of services they provided in 2010/11? 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 District health boards are being funded with the expectation of providing more overall services particularly in areas of patient priorities like more surgery faster cancer treatment more children immunised and faster emergency departments. District health boards make decisions within their increased budgets and as the member is well aware the Government has always said that we expect that some programmes will be slowed scaled or stopped. All money saved in health stays in health. 
Grant Robertson 
: Was the increase in funding in dollar terms for district health boards in the 2011-12 Budget sufficient to meet the cost of inflation and population growth faced by district health boards? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: As I have told the member previously we cannot actually give a firm answer to that at present because additional funds will flow to district health boards during the financial year. 
Grant Robertson 
: Was Stuart Bramhall a recently retired senior psychiatrist at Taranaki Base Hospital correct when she told the  
Taranaki Daily News 
 that before her retirement a lack of funding meant her patients “couldn’t be properly cared for”? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That is not the information that I have. What I do know is that the Taranaki District Health Board has had an increase of $29 million over the last 3 years and I think the feedback I am getting from Taranaki is that the services have really improved there. 
Hilary Calvert 
: Given that much of the increased health spending between 2001 and 2006 was eroded by productivity losses of 15 percent for doctors and 11 percent for nurses does he agree that simply throwing money at hospitals is not the answer; if so what concrete evidence can he provide for improved hospital productivity since he became Minister? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Throwing more money at the health service is not the answer. Actually the Labour Government doubled the health budget in its 9 years and got fewer operations so we know that is not the case. We have put in an additional $1.5 billion of new money into health over the last 3 years but I think if one looks at the record numbers of elective surgeries the much-faster cancer radiation treatment faster emergency departments and better preventive health then one can see the better productivity that New Zealanders have been seeking. Frankly we could not have achieved that without improved productivity. 
Grant Robertson 
: Was Stuart Bramhall a recently retired senior psychiatrist at Taranaki Base Hospital lying when she told the  
Taranaki Daily News 
 that before her retirement lack of funding meant patients “couldn’t be properly cared for”? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That really is a silly a question. I am sure Dr Bramhall believes what she told the paper. What I can say is that we have put an additional $29 million into the Taranaki District Health Board and during that time we have seen quite a significant improvement in the number of staff working there. For example we have many more nurses working there than we had at that hospital 2½ years ago. 
Grant Robertson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Point of order Grant Robertson. [ 
Interruption 
] A point of order has been called. 
Grant Robertson 
: I appreciate that it was not a question that the Minister liked but it was a direct question asking whether the clinician mentioned was lying. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no no. The member knows that he cannot expect a Minister to say yes or no about whether someone is lying. The Minister explained why he disagrees with that clinician and the Minister is perfectly at liberty to explain why he disagrees with the clinician. 
Grant Robertson 
: Is it acceptable for nursing staff at Taranaki Base Hospital to regularly double-shift and not to have a complete 9-hour break between shifts as was reported in the  
Taranaki Daily News 
 story on Monday? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The Taranaki District Health Board has had increased funding of $29 million over the last 3 years and it has more nurses working there than 2½ years ago. How the district health board manages its services and the way staff move around the hospital to meet those demands is the responsibility of the district health board. What I can assure the member is that this Government has given the district health board quite a lot of extra money.