Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:624;Page:19411] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to speak to the financial review of the Ministry of Health. It is great to be involved with a party that commits itself to positive politics. I thank the Minister of Health Annette King for having a very wide open door towards our party whereby we can approach her with solutions and suggestions and receive a welcome from her. She listens to what we say and she considers it seriously. We are very proud for instance that in the last Budget we had a hand in securing the extra $250 million over the next 4 years to ensure that the Government can follow through on its commitment to the Mental Health Commission’s blueprint. However I would be remiss as a member of a party separate from the Minister’s if I did not express to the Minister some concerns that we want her and the ministry to consider as a way forward in this area. 
We signal that we have some concerns about the underspending of blueprint money in some regions. We understand that the Minister’s priorities for spending in the primary health services have been to layer into primary health organisations firstly inexpensive or free GP visits for the under-18s and secondly funding for GP visits for the over-65s. We expect that the Minister’s third priority will be the funding of a community level of primary mental health service. We welcome the opportunity for that to be funded through primary health organisations. However the concern remains that if we are under-delivering now on current levels of funding for mental health services we need some assurances that the services offered in terms of desperately needed primary interventions for those suffering from ill health will reflect the money allocated. United Future is keen to see clear provisions for psychological therapies to be funded with as much enthusiasm as pharmaceutical treatments currently receive. 
The real crisis facing our health system is threefold: workforce workforce workforce. Shortages plague us in both high-level tertiary specialist services and the vital aged-care sector with caregivers who deal with New Zealand’s most vulnerable citizens—who are in the most vulnerable season of their life and where dignity is absolutely essential—being paid the most appalling wages and working under the most appalling conditions. That problem will not go away; it will only get bigger and some long-term planning in that area is absolutely essential. 
Another concern we have relates to core child health services. We believe that there is a huge need to overhaul and review what we are presently offering. The eight Well Child health checks need to be monitored more closely. We need the ministry to provide us with the data to assure us that the coverage of those Well Child checks is as complete as possible. We are hugely concerned for instance about child dental services. I say to the Minister that we face an extremely Third World condition in the Hutt at present in that the Sisters of Compassion are funding a dental service on a Saturday morning to make up for the shortfall in that area. I think that the problem is more widespread. Bay of Plenty schools have reported that they have children who have not been seen by a dental therapist for 2 years. We really think that child health is a huge area. 
The Vision Hearing Screening Programme is particularly dear to United Future’s heart. We are deeply concerned that that is a flawed screening programme that is giving false information to parents and teachers and that large numbers of children are slipping through the cracks going undetected and failing in our education system purely because they cannot see the work in front of them or have a hearing impairment that has gone undetected. We urge the ministry to do a serious review of that screening programme. 
We are also concerned about child mental health services. We agree that again workforce development will be needed. We are concerned as others are about the overprescription to children of Ritalin. We encourage the ministry to make sure that it monitors that and we encourage the Minister to keep an eye on that core child health service.