Blue Jackie: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Blue Jackie: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 22 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4639. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I am delighted to speak in this general debate and I am absolutely proud to be part of a National-led Government that is getting on with the job of building a brighter future for New Zealand. We are not being distracted by sideshows. 
I want to spend some time just talking about some really exciting health initiatives that have been happening in the health sector and one in particular that began in Mount Roskill in my first term in Parliament. A group of migrant doctors predominantly refugee doctors had been meeting at one of the NGO groups in Three Kings for some years. It was like a support group really. They were frustrated that they could not get any support for a bridging programme. They wanted to get recognised and registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand but were really frustrated in their attempts to get support. That was until I got involved and I got Tony Ryall involved when he became the Minister of Health. He sympathised with their plight and he supported them. Health Workforce New Zealand got involved and the rest is history as they say. 
Colleagues NZREX is the Medical Council’s registration exam that every foreign doctor has to sit if they cannot get registered by any other route. The NZREX preparation programme began in April 2011. There have been three intakes of up to about 10 foreign doctors each 
There was an example given to me of a woman who came to New Zealand from Russia 12 years ago. She had married a New Zealander and had permanent residency. She had a son. At that time in her life she did not feel she could go through the registration process so she trained as a nurse and qualified but never ever gave up her dream of practising as a doctor. She heard about the NZREX programme and was accepted into it. 
She left her family for 3 months to work at Auckland City Hospital. Her days began at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. and that left the evenings for studying. She learnt about the Kiwi-orientated patient approach. Actors were involved in role playing. She passed successfully at the end of 3 months and is now practising as a doctor. Of the 10 on the intake of which she was one nine passed that exam and the 10th person eventually passed a few months later. So 10 out of 10 passed. That was a hugely successful intake as have been the other successive intakes. Of those 10 students two were from China three were from Iraq two were from Sri Lanka one was from India one was from Fiji and of course this lady was from Russia. It was a win-win for all and it is particularly successful. We are a multicultural nation and our health workforce needs to represent the community that it serves. 
Another huge and exciting scheme which I think has been successful is the Voluntary Bonding Scheme which was set up in the last term. It has been going for 3 years. That has been phenomenally successful. There has been a total of 2300 health graduates who have been accepted on to this scheme and they have come from all over New Zealand. This year we have accepted 510 health graduates. They are not all doctors. There are 43 doctors 42 midwives 411 nurses 13 radiation therapists and one medical physicist. It is about keeping our graduates in New Zealand—that is what it is about. 
The Rural Medical Immersion Scheme is also proving successful. It is keeping our graduates in New Zealand. We know that if graduates work in hard-to-staff areas and settle in there they will stay there and that is what it is all about. It has been hugely successful and I am grateful that the Minister of Health has had the vision to implement that type of programme. 
I am particularly pleased to see the patient cancer pathway improved for patients in New Zealand. We want to ensure that they receive good quality treatment that is timely. There have been four key areas that have been worked on. The first one is cancer wait indicators. Audits have shown that waiting times on the cancer patient pathway were very variable and the different measurements are now being recorded. Let us face it. We know that when measurements are recorded and they are published people step up. They start talking to their colleagues asking: “How can we achieve this target?”. And guess what? It happens. That is what cancer wait-time indicators will do. 
There has been work done on tumour standards which is about getting the best-practice services across New Zealand. There are about eight tumour standards. They include bowel breast gynaecological and melanoma to name some of them. There is an improvement in multidisciplinary meetings and that is key to providing excellent care for patients having cancer treatment. But the best news of all to me is the introduction of patient pathway cancer co-ordinators.