5. Health Services—Primary-care Funding and AccessHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of HealthHealth Services—Primary-care Funding and AccessHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): My question is to the Minister of Health. I like his new suit too and his new tie.Mr SPEAKER: Order! And well you might but that is not part of question time.5. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of Health: Does he expect an estimated 533000 New Zealanders who did not visit a GP due to cost in the last year to continue to wait for primary care reform which might form part of a future Budget" possibly under a different health Minister as stated by him?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): No. GPs charge different rates and people have the right to seek out a doctor whose combination of service approach and pricing is right for them. Furthermore very good work is under way to continue to ensure that subsidies reach those most in need. In the meantime here is some good news to cheer the member up: affordability of prescriptions and after-hours care for kids has been removed as an issue because of the fantastic free-for-under-13s policy which started on 1 July last year. I thank the member for her continued support and advocacy for this policy.Hon Annette King: Why should New Zealanders have to bear the burden of the $250 million accumulated shortfall in primary healthcare funding—leading to hundreds and thousands of sick people being unable to afford a doctor's visit—because he is not an effectual Minister of Health let alone any other role he might fancy?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Oh well I would leave that for the member to comment on. But look frankly primary care funding is up $230 million under this Government to nearly $900 million and there was a further $25 million in this Budget so to make those claims of some missing amount is purely fiction.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have asked for a bit of cooperation on this side. If Mr Faafoi continues to interject I will have to ask him to leave.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table a document provided to me today by the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) General Practitioner Council showing the $250 million accumulated shortfall in primary care.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular information from the NZMA. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Annette King: If he is capable of showing leadership why does he not take responsibility for the growing number of failures in health—leading to headlines such as "Staff shortages" "Forced closure of beds" "Overworked doctors make mistakes" "Surgeons fear for patient safety" "Budget pressures unmanageable"—things that would never have happened under Tony Ryall?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well of course we had a long discussion on failures in health last Thursday and I am sure the member would not want to go there again but the fact is that there was an extra $2.2 billion put into the health budget at the last Budget and there is a clear record of continued rises in appointments more operations and 6000 more doctors and nurses. The member struggles to name one single service that has not improved over the last 8 years and that is the fact of it.Hon Annette King: Is the reason the New Zealand Doctor magazine called him "Doctor Who" "missing in action" "To the bedside manor born" and "aka Doc Martin" that he is too focused on his own career prospects rather than fixing the stuff-up in health which is leading to people missing out on the care they need?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well maybe they call me that because I actually am a doctor. But look the fact is New Zealand Doctor says all sorts of things about all sorts of people. I want to tell you that they say some pretty interesting things about that member there as well.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table the New Zealand Doctor magazine of 22 June this year headed "To the bedside manor born"—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! It has been described. I will put the leave on the basis that it may not be readily available to members. Leave is sought to table that particular article. Is there any objection? There is objection.Hon Annette King: Has he got what it takes to be a leader when he ignores one of the biggest GP organisations which says that it has brought the lack of access for New Zealanders to visit their GP to his attention but his response to it was "That's just rhetoric."?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well of course very low-cost access funding is a problem we inherited from Mrs King but if she is so popular with GP leaders I wonder why they did not send her an invitation to the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners' big launch on Thursday—or maybe she was just too busy to deal with it and turn up."