Ryall Tony: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12716] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I have to say that so much progress is being made in health that I am looking forward to the contribution being made. 
I will talk about the member who has just spoken Ruth Dyson. One of the things I can say about that member is that day after day she asks a question in the House and never gets any coverage for it. That is because of this simple fact: the member distorts and never actually tells the full facts of a story. For example just now she said that on Thursday I denied knowing something. Actually on Thursday I was in Auckland opening a new health centre with other people. I was not in Parliament. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: The Minister who answered was answering on your behalf. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Oh it was the Minister in my place. You see this is just another little story. The member says one thing and means another. 
Let us just go through what Ruth Dyson says. What about this one? Do members remember the press release headed “Starvation Imminent …”? I ask whether members remember this question from a couple of weeks ago. “Starvation Imminent …” was the headline of the press release. Ruth Dyson said that people in the Prime Minister’s electorate were having their Meals on Wheels ripped from them and that they would have imminent starvation. What were the facts? Seven people were moving from one provider to the next. Starvation imminent! 
What about this one? I ask whether members remember this one. Apparently I was going to shut down 1000 rest home beds in Dunedin. Do members remember that? There are only 1200 beds in total but I was going to cut 1000! She did not cover that one. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Bed nights—tell the truth. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: We hear “tell the truth” from her! 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Bed nights. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: It is bed nights now. Oh! 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: That’s what the press release said. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: So the press release said we are cutting 1000 beds and the question in the House said we are cutting 1000 beds but it was bed nights. That is just absolutely untrue. 
What about this one? What about the press statement from Ruth Dyson stating that Waikato Hospital has a freeze on recruitment and on employing doctors and nurses? Just as Waikato Hospital was sending out 46 job offers Ruth Dyson said that there was a freeze on recruitment there. I can tell members that there are more doctors— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Waikato District Health Board said that. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: It did not say that. It probably said that it had turned off the light switches and the member interpreted that to mean that it had turned off recruitment. That is how she works. 
It has been interesting today that Ruth Dyson has finally announced what the Labour Opposition’s one policy in health is. 
Hon Member 
: What is it? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: It is another $300 million. She promised tonight that another $300 million will fix everything. That is from the party that doubled the health budget when it was in Government and gave people fewer operations. Labour doubled the health budget and rheumatic fever has gone up. It doubled the health budget and diabetes has gone up. It doubled the health budget and everything has gone wrong. It doubled the health budget and fewer people are getting operations. It doubled the health budget and there are fewer general practitioners. Now Labour says that the answer is another $300 million. That is Labour’s promise. Its promise is another $300 million in health. It did not work in the past and it will not work again. 
This Government has put a significant investment into health. It is made hard by the fact that under Labour’s watch $17 million was defrauded from the Otago District Health Board when one of Labour’s mates was the chairman of that board—$17 million was defrauded. As a result of that the previous Labour Government allowed the assets of the Otago District Health Board to become so run down that it refused to put extra money into the Otago District Health Board to fix its hospitals. 
What have I done about it? With the great lobbying and support of Michael Woodhouse we have another $25 million for a major capital upgrade at Dunedin Hospital. We have put millions of dollars into a new mental health unit in Whangarei. We have put tens of millions of dollars into a new emergency department and 50 extra beds at North Shore Hospital and another 25 were opened last week. That party in Government and its flunky Mrs McKelvie—who was chair of the Waitemata District Health Board at the time and who is also a close personal friend of the previous Prime Minister Helen Clark and Ruth Dyson—refused to deal with the emergency department at North Shore. 
We have put millions of dollars into building extra buildings at Otago and Counties-Manukau. We have put tens of millions of dollars into the new emergency department and umpteen extra beds at Waikato. We are putting in a new wing whose construction is under way at Tauranga Hospital. 
We are investing heavily in the public health service. Since we came into office we have put an extra $1.3 billion— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Why are old people losing services? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: —into health. What is more as at last year more money was put into home support for old people and more money will be put in next year. 
Labour hates that it doubled the budget yet it lost the public’s confidence in the health service. Do members remember when that party opposite said day after day that there was no workforce crisis in health? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: We never said that. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Oh did members hear that? The member says that Labour never said that there was no workforce crisis in health. What has National done about it? We have 1400 of our smartest doctors nurses and midwives on a voluntary bonding scheme. We have said to them that if they stay in the country for between 3 and 5 years they can write off their student loan. We have 1400 young people who have put up their hand to do that and we are having significant gains there. 
What is more we have much faster cancer treatment in New Zealand now than we had under the previous Government. Do members remember when Ruth Dyson used to defend sending women to Australia because they had to wait 14 weeks for cancer radiation treatment? She said that it was fine for people to wait 14 weeks for cancer treatment. That is what that member’s Government— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: What a liar. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. That member has made unparliamentary comments. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member has said that unparliamentary comments are being made. I have heard them and they will stop. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Those comments are unparliamentary especially when we consider how that member misrepresents every day. 
We have put a huge amount of money—$1.3 billion—into health. As a result of that money we now have faster cancer treatment. Cancer treatment waiting times are coming down within 6 weeks. In January 2009 about 8 or 9 percent of New Zealand cancer patients were waiting longer than 6 weeks for treatment. That figure is now down to 1 percent. 
When we came into office the average increase in elective surgery was 2000 operations a year and most of that increase happened in the last year or so of the previous Government. That figure is up by 13000 in our first year. When we came into office 80 percent of the people coming into an emergency department might have been treated and through the emergency department in 6 hours. We are now up to almost 90 percent of patients being treated through emergency departments in that time. Significant investments are going into health. 
In mental health $40 million is being invested in those services and district health boards will be allocating an extra $174 million for mental health over the next 4 years. We will see $24 million of new spending on a 4-year pilot for the national bowel cancer screening programme. We remember when Labour talked about it announced it and did nothing for it. Those members talked about it announced it said that it would happen by Christmas and did nothing about it. 
We have also put a large amount of extra money into medical training. We will train an extra 200 medical students over the next few years. We have funded an extra 80 medical student places; that is happening already. We have put a huge investment into medicines. An extra $60 million is going into Pharmac with huge numbers of New Zealanders benefiting. 
We have also dealt with the cardiac surgery waiting list. Do members remember that when Ruth Dyson was in Cabinet there was a report that people had died on the Wellington Hospital waiting list because of the way that the previous Government operated the cardiac surgery waiting list? Well we have put a huge amount of money into dealing with the cardiac waiting list and we have those waiting lists lower than they have ever been before. We have made some very very significant investments. 
Ruth Dyson focuses every day in the House on some small little change affecting a few people around the country and misrepresents the facts. Do members remember the heading “Starvation imminent …”? Do members remember the press release and the question in the House that referred to imminent starvation? What was it? Eight people were moving from one Meals on Wheels provider to another and that was imminent starvation! Do members remember the 1000 rest home beds being cut from the Otago District Health Board? 
Chris Auchinvole 
: How many were there all together? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: There are only 1200 all together. Do members remember the freeze on staff at Waikato Hospital as they were sending out 46 recruitment letters?