Reti Shane; van Velden Brooke; Verrall AyeshaDr SHANE RETI (National): Thank you Madam Chair. We're just wondering if the Minister in the chair Ayesha Verrall is going to answer the questions around the 20 mobile dental caravans—she talked about dental—whether she's going to answer the questions around Te Ara Oranga the promised 4000 extra consultations. The written parliamentary question around the number of fulltime-equivalents in the Māori Health Authority is No. 20630—I just want to clarify that. We really just want to know both my questions and my colleagues' whether the Minister has any intention of answering them tonight in this debate which is the purpose.Let's also put the Capital Investment Committee which was reasonably asked and described into that mix as well. I understand that a number will be extremely surprised that it has been disestablished as was I an hour ago. So I think it's a reasonable question to ask. When was it disestablished why and what replaces it? This was a very important pathway to millions and millions—literally billions of dollars. Now we find out it's disappeared. So really it's a question: is the Minister going to answer the questions in this debate or not?BROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): I completely agree with Dr Reti. I would really like to know what expenditure was set aside for staff safety in hospitals. We know the number of assaults has doubled in our hospitals in the last year. When I have people in hospitals coming up to me saying I don't feel safe when I'm at work and I don't actually want a pay increase; I just want to feel safe when I'm doing my job." and they don't feel listened to by this Government—why the Minister won't answer that question. We need to know what the Minister has done to listen to these concerns because it's genuinely fearful for people turning up to work and if people are fearful of turning up to work in our hospital systems that doesn't give us faith that more people will want to join that profession. We need to know people are going to be safe when they're at work especially when they're helping some of the most vulnerable people at the most vulnerable points of their lives. How much money has the Government put aside in addition to what they had before to make sure that there is security to make sure that there is safety to make sure that people are not being assaulted when they're in the hospitals?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health): As discussed in the select committee debate this is an area of a profound concern for Te Whatu Ora and for myself. I am aware that for a long time there has been absolutely unacceptable behaviour directed towards staff from members of the public and that does make them feel threatened at work and that is absolutely not appropriate. There is a considerable presence of security in our hospitals. Te Whatu Ora has over 800 fulltime-equivalent staff in security and also in some districts there would also be external contractors providing that service. There is a renewed priority put on that work and that's why Te Whatu Ora has engaged with unions on that matter to decide collectively what additional work can be done to address that. I know in some hospitals that I've visited efforts to make sure that waiting rooms in the emergency department are more proactively managed and there's more support for the people waiting helps address some of the frustration that might be behind some of the unacceptable behaviour there.In terms of some questions about capital the Southern digital transformation project is for modernising the information technology in Dunedin Hospital. That includes some of the infrastructure required for the build such as cabling but it also includes transformation in terms of digitising notes and other clinical systems—for example room bookings—and potentially regionalising those systems as well.We also at the committee discussed the approach to medicines of this Government and I think this Government can be very proud of the comprehensive approach we've taken to improving access to medicines. We have lifted the Pharmac budget by over 40 percent. There have been hundreds of new drugs or indications for drugs funded as a result of that change. While it is easy to have a go at Pharmac because not everything is available through it there has been a substantial access to medicine through that effort.In addition we are also making sure that the benefits of that technology are equitably shared and that is part of the rationale for the co-pay policy. It is not just a matter of having one approach to our medicines policy but having an integrated approach. The importance of being able to lift people's access to medicines through that co-payment is one of the priorities of this Government and it's fantastic to see how warmly welcomed that policy is by the public.We did discuss the reasons for the uplift for community services including general practice being 5 percent. Traditionally and this financial year the uplift has been based on the annual statement of increase. That looks at capital cost supplies and workforce costs and it was based on that—that was 4.9 percent; the 5 percent uplift was in addition to that. It is the highest uplift that has ever been given to primary care and community services."