7. Mental Health Services—Demand Funding and Primary Health OrganisationsDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of HealthMental Health Services—Demand Funding and Primary Health Organisations7. Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of Health: How many more New Zealanders are accessing district heath boards' mental health and addiction services nationally now than in 2007/08 expressed as a percentage increase; and what is the corresponding percentage growth in funding for mental health and addiction services over the same time period?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): District health boards (DHBs) fund a wide range of mental health and addiction services from services in the community provided by NGOs in primary care through to hospital-based services. Given this complex mix it is not possible to specifically quantify the percentage increase in patients accessing DHB-funded mental health and addiction services. However we all know demand has increased but so has funding from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion a year.Dr David Clark: Does he agree with Dr Cullen owner of Khandallah Medical Centre in Wellington who said of Dr Coleman's recently announced mental health quality initiative—a review that is not a review—that It can't take five years. Things will go wildly wrong."?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well that Dr Cullen is not the Dr Cullen I am familiar with but what I would say to that Dr Cullen is that I would urge him to read the speech that I gave last Thursday entitled "Social investment in mental health" which lays out the Government's approach to these very complex and difficult areas in general.Dr David Clark: Is he now denying that his officials last month told a primary health organisation (PHO) that a proposal for primary mental health teams had to wait to be considered under the ministry's strategic plan next year?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well I think the member may be referring to the M4 plan which is a mental health plan for primary care access that has been developed by four PHOs and which Labour has announced today as its own plan. Of course this plan is already in train in terms of being considered by the Ministry of Health and of course we have got a Budget coming up and an election campaign in which details around funding and whether or not it may progress would be released and considered.Dr David Clark: Given that answer will he finally accept that he has dropped the ball on mental health and adopt Labour's policy to introduce primary mental health coordinators whose job it is to ensure that people in our communities with mild to moderate mental health needs no longer fall through the chasms that have emerged under his watch?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: What I would point out is that this policy Labour has announced today is actually the idea of a group of PHOs and it has already been referred to the Ministry of Health. But the member has gone on extensively about so-called health underfunding in mental health yet all the Labour Party has come up with today is a policy that would increase mental health spending by only 1.4 percent which is actually less than the rate of inflation. So I will leave it for members to decide whether after all the hype and all the rhetoric that is an adequate response.Dr David Clark: So is he now denying that his officials last month told a primary health organisation about primary mental health teams that "it is not in a position to support a proposal of such a scale"?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: So look I do not go to every forum that the 1400 health officials run around the country but I think what they have said is actually pretty fair—that they are not in a position to announce Government policy. They are the officials. They are considering this proposal from the PHOs and that is exactly as it should be.Dr David Clark: I seek leave to table a paywalled report about the Ministry of Health's lukewarm response to primary mental health teams from the New Zealand Doctor magazine last month.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular article. Is there any objection? There is objection."