Stewart Barbara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Stewart Barbara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14127] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I must say that we were very pleased to hear the Prime Minister outline her Government’s priorities for the health system. It is important. The new Minister of Health has a big job ahead and plenty of issues that he can make progress on now that he is “running the show” and has discovered that he can order urgent reviews from the district health boards for action—the latest from Capital and Coast District Health Board. With all of this information he can be ready with the solutions. From the other side of the House health was mentioned only in very broad terms—no specifics no policies yet there have been many years for these policies to be considered and formulated. 
We expected to have some vision today. But did we? No. In fact all we heard was the case for Australia. With the Prime Minister’s statement we should be able to expect some further action. Gains can be made from stable government. As we all know this is election year and completed actions are absolutely essential to go to the country with. 
One area of major concern to the public is elective surgery. Patients who enter the system via the accident and emergency system are well catered for within the constraints the system actually has. However if one is waiting for elective surgery it is a bit like a lottery draw. The worst of it is that if one loses in this particular draw the consequences can be fatal despite the additional numbers of doctors and nurses. As a “for instance” three people died in Hawke’s Bay Hospital while they were on the Wellington Hospital waiting list for heart surgery. The Minister has ordered a review. We hope that this will not be a smoke and mirrors exercise. 
From the end of life we move to the beginning—specifically maternity services. They are understaffed under pressure and basically in need of a review. According to a senior obstetrician this week “funding for midwives the relationships between midwives and doctors and recruitment of midwives and obstetricians could all be improved.” There is plenty of scope there for improvement. With New Zealand First and with the Government we have restored free health-care for the under-sixes and devised a formula to ensure that it is continued for years to come as part of our confidence and supply agreement and of course we will be monitoring this closely. 
The next area we go on to is cancer treatment. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in New Zealand but we still do not have access to diagnostic equipment that has been in use in other countries for many years. Access to positron emission topography scanners has been the subject of bureaucratic dithering on a huge scale. Currently the responsibility has been given back to the chief executive officers of the district health boards for a decision by the end of this month. Let us hope that it is not too long before the decision is made so that people do not have to suffer needlessly. Positron emission topography I am told is coming but it needs to be sooner rather than later. 
Public health also rates a mention. Patea’s old freezing works has been sitting there for years while both local and central government have wrangled over who should pay for the site to be cleared up. Then we had someone come along and light a fire and there was a potential public health emergency of huge proportions. There is also the matter of the methyl bromide gas from fumigation of the export logs waiting around on the Wellington wharf in the Wellington central business district. Is this just another public health disaster waiting to happen? Whoever is responsible at the ministry needs to get on to these two issues as soon as possible. 
Then right here in Wellington we have the particular problems of the Capital and Coast District Health Board. Among those problems is the flash new hospital that even before it is finished will be short of beds. Meanwhile out in Porirua and on the Kapiti Coast close to 100000 people are currently without 24-hour emergency medical care because Kenepuru Hospital’s emergency department has had to close off its late-night services. This is a dilemma that is very unfortunate. It was made by the previous Government but it still has to be fixed—preferably by this Government—as soon as possible. As I said before there are plenty of issues to make progress on and New Zealand First will be monitoring these results closely.