Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): I am a fairly new member of the Health Committee and it is a real pleasure to rise to participate in debate on the Appropriation (2015/16 Confirmation and Validation) Bill in the Committee of the whole House. I just want to congratulate the Minister of Health sitting there. In terms of the Budgets health Ministers always want more money to do more and there is always more to do and I just want to congratulate the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman because he has managed to do more—make the money stretch a heck of a lot as well. As the Minister actually said we now have more than 4600 more nurses compared with 2008. That is about you know nearly 23000 nurses and we have about 8000 more doctors who are actually full-time equivalent. That is a heck of a lot more than we used to have back in 2008. I think that putting the budget where it is actually required on the front line of service is actually something that this Minister has managed to do and I congratulate him.One of the things that I am really fascinated with is the results that we achieve in health. Recently I was talking to a friend of mine—he is actually a volunteer for me and 3 years ago when he was volunteering for me in the last election he had major issues walking with me doorknocking. He needed a hip replacement and you know now he is walking much better. He is running almost. He is so healthy. His business is actually back on track. He is earning a heck of a lot of money because he is actually a builder. He is so very happy. He has got two brand new hips. These elective surgeries that we have managed to provide for New Zealanders is something that we should actually congratulate.There is more access to specialists. That is actually a priority for this Government the first specialist assessments that people are getting. There were 552423 patients who received a first specialist assessment in 2016 a rise of almost 10000 on the previous year. That is actually a huge increase—148000 patients since 2008. That is a 37 percent increase I believe. I am trying to look at the numbers here and you know I am obviously not having a very successful reading ability in terms of reading numbers here. I should actually do better in numbers because I am oriental. Unfortunately the members opposite could not even pronounce the Chinese name that they were asking a question about anyway.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! [Interruption] Order! The member will resume her seat. She will come back to the debate that is current and she will not make comments that if made by any other member would result in a severe telling-off.MELISSA LEE: I am a big supporter of the bowel screening that this Government has put in place. Budget 2016 invested $39.3 million for the start of the roll-out of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and I think it is really really wonderful. You know there are people who get diagnosed with cancer and it is the big C" that people actually worry about and they are scared of it. The fact that we have actually introduced a screening programme—early detection means that they can actually deal to it. We have run successful programmes for early detection in terms of cervical cancer. We have also done it with breast cancer and now is the chance for bowel cancer screening. Southern and Counties Manukau are the next district health boards (DHB) to in fact roll out the screening programme in 2017 and 2018 and the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs will receive it this July. I think it is actually wonderful that this early screening roll-out has been put in place and that is expected to help about 500 to 700 people detect cancer so they can actually deal to it.There have been other things that other members have mentioned. The "healthy kids" target—free for under-13s—is something that all parents up and down the country will be celebrating because when you have a sick child it is in fact the parents who actually worry. I am very glad that the immunisation numbers are up as well.Reports noted."