5. District Health Boards—Funding for Staff and Demographic PressuresHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of HealthDistrict Health Boards—Funding for Staff and Demographic Pressures5. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of Health: Did district health boards receive enough funding in 2016/17 to meet all demographic wage and inflationary cost pressures; if not what is the amount of the shortfall?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): Demographic pressures for 2016-17 are fully funded but of course we will not know until the end of the financial year whether inflation has been fully funded but given the latest inflation figures it is as good as covered. Since 2001 district health boards (DHBs) have been asked to make savings every year. For 2016-17 DHBs are expected to save a tiny 0.7 of 1 percent of their total massive $12.2 billion budget.Hon Annette King: How much funding has been allowed in the DHBs' budgets in 2016-17 to pay for improved working conditions for junior doctors and cover for senior doctors during the 2-day strike?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well of course that is all subject to ongoing negotiations as the member well knows and it is expected that DHBs will use funding within their very generous baselines to cover all pressures in the manner I have just described.Hon Annette King: Does he stand by his statement that It is unacceptable if our junior doctors are working in unsafe conditions"; if so does he believe junior doctors are working in unsafe conditions—justifying their demand for a safer roster.Mr SPEAKER: Two supplementary questions. The Minister can answer one.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well of course we are not going to do wage negotiations in Parliament but I stand by all my statements.Hon Annette King: If he believes a junior doctor's job is "tough" why has he been at such pains to rubbish their survey by saying there is "no objective evidence" of a problem when junior doctors reported making mistakes and falling asleep driving home from work exhausted after long hours?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well look I think we have got a very hard-working junior doctor workforce and I know the member would love to drag me into the centre of negotiations but I think the common-sense approach would be actually just to let this strike play out and get both parties back to the negotiating table so we can continue to provide the very excellent health services that New Zealanders have the benefit of accessing.Hon Annette King: Does he think the Prime Minister made an unfair comparison between the long hours junior doctors work dealing with life and death decisions and the comparison he made with the long hours that investment bankers work shuffling money around?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No the member is misrepresenting what the Prime Minister said. He said that all young people in professions work long and hard hours in those first few years after graduation.Hon Annette King: How can he claim all costs have been covered by the Government funding when the health system has reached the stage where we have some DHBs that could not cover the nurses' pay increase and are now trying to claw back penal rates from junior doctors who work unsociable hours? Is what he is saying not just spin and waffle?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No that is completely incorrect. If you look back at the record over the previous 7 years and what is going to happen again this year it is that funding has actually been well ahead of the estimated pressures. So funding has kept up with all pressures but of course we will not know until the end of the year what the inflation rate has been. It is very similar to the automatic savings that Labour demanded of DHBs of 0.5 percent of their total budget each year. This is pretty much in the same ballpark."