7. Question No. 7—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Does he stand by all his statements and actions around the health workforce?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): Yes.Dr Shane Reti: Why did his announcement this week on the health workforce not include an increase in the number of new medical school places available for home-grown doctors?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The announcements I made this week were matters that Te Whatu Ora—Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health are investing in. Matters of entrance to medical schools are a combination of health investment and education investment largely through the Tertiary Education Commission. This Government remains focused on doing what we can to increase medical students in our medical schools but we don't have any particular announcement to make on that at this point.Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm that it will take months before a single new migrant nurse is added to the health workforce as a result of his announcements this week and isn't that far too slow when there are reports today of an elderly woman who was left lying in a hospital ward in her own urine for 14 hours?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Can I just say in relation to the story of the woman in the hospital who was treated in that way that I was horrified to hear that anybody in a New Zealand hospital would be treated in that sort of way. Although as Minister I can't get into the specific details of an individual case I would urge that patient and her family and whānau to take those issues up with the hospital and if they're not satisfied to go to the Health and Disability Commissioner. In relation to the recruitment of nurses the member might be interested to know that right now we have 7000 overseas qualified health professionals who have registered their interest in wanting to come to work in New Zealand including 3200 nurses. I don't anticipate we'll have any difficulty in getting through the recruitment process to get nurses in place in New Zealand just as quickly as possible. I might say there are still some barriers that we have to deal with but they are largely around the regulatory authorities such as the Nursing Council of New Zealand but I can say the Nursing Council has written to me recently saying they wish to be part of a solution to make it easier for overseas nurses to get their registration.Dr Shane Reti: How then will he explain to the woman's family and the reportedly understaffed hospital team that his health workforce announcements this week did not put migrant nurses on the immediate fast-track pathway to residency?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: What I would say to anybody is that nurses are now on the green list and they have an ease of access to New Zealand that they have never had before. I only have to look at the number of those who are registering their interest to work in New Zealand: 3200 nurses overseas qualified ready to work in New Zealand and they will now be chased up.Dr Shane Reti: When he said in his health workforce announcements this week that he would be collaborating on nursing matters with Shortland Street does he really think Shortland Street represents the nursing workforce?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The member must have misheard what I said. The collaboration is between the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the Ministry of Health. The recruitment campaign which is badged Real Nurses is a collaborative effort between the New Zealand Nurses Organisation who actually came up with the idea and started the development of much of the collateral and the ministry. The Nurses Organisation came to me in about the middle of last year and said Look they've got this nub of an idea. They've started it but they don't have the means to carry on. Could we work together on it?" I spoke to ministry officials. They checked it out. They thought it was fantastic. I looked at the material. I thought it was fantastic. The Ministry of Health and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation working together have produced an amazing product right throughout the development of it and New Zealand Nurses Organisation representatives have been sitting on the steering group. They came up with the idea of engaging with Shortland Street to make sure that story gets to a group of people who probably apart from today don't engage much with Parliament for example or the political process but will want to at an age when they are starting to make decisions about their future engage with what future health careers look like. I'd urge those who are fans of Shortland Street to continue watching. There's more to come.Dr Shane Reti: Does the Shortland Street material he just stated he has looked at include a plotline with ballooning waiting lists and people waiting in leaky tents?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Once again the member has misheard me. I talked about the Real Nurses material that has been developed. It is on the realnurses.co.nz website which has some great information for those who are interested in a career in the health workforce and I hope that there are many who are because we need you. But it's a good time now if you're a youngster to be thinking about what you want to do. A health career is a great opportunity. Go to realnurses.co.nz. Carry on watching Shortland Street. You'll find out a lot more."