Simpson Scott: Health Practitioners (Replacement of Statutory References to Medical Practitioners) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Health Practitioners (Replacement of Statutory References to Medical Practitioners) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 18 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5920. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): I am delighted to take a call in this first reading of the Health Practitioners (Replacement of Statutory References to Medical Practitioners) Bill in the name of the very good and competent Minister of Health Dr Jonathan Coleman.The previous member Jenny Salesa was obviously receiving some kind of incentive or reward for mentioning a former health Minister in the last Labour administration Annette King because I suspect that probably every mention received a chocolate fish or something along those lines. I counted about five or six mentions. Of course some of us have been involved in the political system long enough to remember that when that member was the Minister of Health we had people lined up in corridors under fluorescent tubes for days on end at North Shore Hospital waiting to get a place in a hospital. It was a shocking and dreadful shambles. So this Government has been busy reforming health making health more efficient and getting it so that for instance New Zealanders no longer have to travel overseas to receive cancer treatment as they did during the time of the Hon Annette King’s administration. This bill particularly is of importance because it is reflective of the changes that have been occurring for a long number of years in our medical and health systems.My late mother was a registered nurse. She practised her nursing at Waikato Hospital. I well recall the many stories that she used to tell of how in those days the most important things that nurses seemed to do was to starch linen and make beds and do everything that was ordered literally by the doctors who were like gods if you like in our medical system. The nurses did the menial tasks and the doctors and the senior medical physicians really did sort of administer a regime that was strict and controlled. Their judgment was never questioned—their judgment was always the be-all and end-all of any medical intervention. Things have changed a lot since the days that my mother was practising nursing at Waikato Hospital.Andrew Bayly: And for the better.SCOTT SIMPSON: And indeed as my friend and colleague Andrew Bayly says for the better. And much for the better because these days there are so many aspects of our health interventions and procedures that can be done by very competent skilled and well-trained people in the medical profession who actually are not general practitioners or doctors as such but they do have the registration and the current education and training to ensure that they can provide all sorts of services and support for people needing that from our health system.This bill I want to make very clear as I understand it makes absolutely no increased risk of harm to the New Zealand public with the scope of practice being set in every instance that this bill envisages by the relevant responsible authority and the professional accountability of each practitioner to be responsible for their actions and their deeds. So although we are moving forward in this area there will be no lowering of standards or lack of protection for members of the public.It is an omnibus bill and it effectively amends seven statutes which enables a wider range of suitably qualified health practitioners as defined under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 to undertake a wider range of functions than they are currently able to do and that are currently restricted to medical practitioners.This Government has spent a lot of time in its 7 years of Government in ensuring that our health dollars go further and that we get better results because under the last Labour administration we had a doubling of health spending but a reduction in actual results for New Zealanders and that of course needed to change and it needed to change in a significant way.I am very proud to be part of a Government that has worked diligently both during the time of the Hon Tony Ryall—during his administration as the Minister of Health—and that is now being carried forward by Dr Jonathan Coleman in his areas of portfolio responsibility.This is a Government that is completely committed to delivering much higher-quality services for all New Zealanders no matter where they live. A previous speaker in this debate my colleague Jacqui Dean who like me represents a provincial rural electorate—these are matters that are of concern to constituents in seats like the Coromandel because often the bricks-and-mortar hospitals are actually quite a long way physically from where the patients are. So the increasing focus is upon ensuring that people can receive the benefits of health and medical advice and intervention in their own communities or indeed in their own homes.What this bill seeks to do is to provide a much greater role for community health providers like our nurses and our pharmacists. Nurses and pharmacists of course have an ability to operate neatly and easily within communities—local communities—often in places that are geographically isolated and some distance away from base hospitals. So by making these changes and by ensuring that we have a greater role for for instance pharmacists and nurses there will be a better supply of health benefits to a wider range of people in our more far-flung rural and provincial communities. This is a Government that is just as concerned about supplying good public services to people in the provinces as it is to supplying them to the cities.This National-led Government of course has put a very big emphasis on increasing the number of doctors and nurses within our health system who are now able to be working within our broader communities. They are working hard to ensure that better services are provided to a much wider range of people. We have now over 3000 enrolled nurses registered to practise across all areas of our health sector. There are 3000 enrolled nurses—Chris Bishop: How many?SCOTT SIMPSON: 3000 Mr Bishop and that is a large number of capable talented professionally competent nurses who can do a whole range of things that have previously just been the protected preserve of the medical practitioners. We now have a total of more than 40000 nurses. So the 3000 enrolled nurses make up the total of 40000 nurses working in New Zealand’s health system and they of course perform a very vital role. So the changes under this legislation will allow this highly skilled workforce with the appropriate knowledge training and professional background to treat and look after patients within our communities and I think that that is a very good step. It is something that has probably been in the wind for a long time but we needed to make sure that it was the right time to introduce this legislation.As a member of the Health Committee I am very much looking forward to a thorough and diligent investigation of this legislation. I know that committee members on the Government side will be doing that and I hasten to add that the Health Committee is a very collegial committee. I know that with the support of Labour members who have indicated that they are going to support this bill through the House I think that we will ensure a very good select committee process under the capable chairmanship of Simon O’Connor.One of the things that has been most obvious over the last few years is that in many other countries health spending has been cut and services to health have been cut. That has not occurred in New Zealand. I am very proud to be part of a Government that has—during the very toughest of economic times when there has been enormous global financial pressure—in every single one of its seven Budgets increased health spending and increased the effectiveness of services to New Zealanders who require the use of our health system.This appears to me to be a very good bill. I am looking forward to the scrutiny that the select committee will give it and I commend it to the House.