King Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 26 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1983. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of Health: What advice has he received on the Health budget for 2015/16?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Associate Minister of Health) on behalf of theMinister of Health: The member will be aware that the details of Budget 2015 and the evidence and advice that sit behind the Budget are confidential until the Budget is announced in May. I have received a range of advice that will inform the thinking of Cabinet for the Budget in May.Hon Annette King: Was the funding signal given to district health boards to ensure they can complete the first drafts of their annual plans by March $250 million as recommended by Treasury or $320 million as proposed by him in the paper to Cabinet in December last year?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Nothing has yet been decided on the health budget and the paper leaked to the member has never even been considered by Cabinet. There have been no cuts. The Government has increased the health budget by an average of $466 million per year since we have been in office and we have seen consistently improving results across the sector. This year will see further increases in the health funding and we expect even better results for New Zealanders. By contrast the member doubled the health budget and we are—Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no responsibility there.Hon Annette King: Does he stand by the advice he was going to give to Cabinet but has not given yet that the signal of $320 million to district health boards for 2015-16—and this is a quote from the Minister—“will make it extremely challenging to manage the pressures in Vote Health.”; if not why not?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: I stand by all my statements and I stand by the statement that in the last year funding has increased by $327 million to all the district health boards across the nation. What this Government is not going to do with the Budget is double the health budget but see deficits blow out by $155 million as it did under that member’s tenure.Hon Annette King: Is his recommendation to Cabinet that 20 district health boards share $86 million to address the cost pressures they face in 2015-16 sufficient to meet wage pressures which as he stated in the Cabinet paper he has not given to Cabinet yet were “estimated to cost $50 million for just a 1 percent in wage/pay increase for our hard-working health workers.”?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: Obviously a number of employment negotiations are taking place and I am not going to prejudice the Government’s position by discussing those negotiations. But suffice to say that the member is wrong again on those facts.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have just been challenged on the facts. I seek leave to table the Cabinet paper that he has not released which has those figures in it.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular paper described by the member. Is there any objection to that paper being tabled? There is.Barbara Stewart: Will Budget 2015 rectify the increasing trend of patients being discharged untreated by our hospitals which in many cases has doubled under this Government?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: As I have stated in my previous answers the funding for the health budget has increased over $466 million per year year on year since this Government took power. That will see further increases in our health funding relating to both elective surgeries and other services to the communities.Barbara Stewart: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: I can anticipate the point of order that is coming. I am going to invite the member to repeat that question for the benefit of the Minister.Barbara Stewart: Will Budget 2015 rectify the increasing trend of patients being discharged untreated by our hospitals which in many cases has doubled under this Government?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: I have not been briefed on those specific facts but if you would like to make a written question to the Minister we will answer it in due course. Thank you.Hon Annette King: How much of the $86 million signalled to cover cost pressures across all district health boards will Counties Manukau District Health Board receive in light of its chair Lee Mathias stating on Tuesday this week that its district health board alone is predicting a shortfall of $100 million—just one district health board?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: As I said in my response to the primary question I cannot make available the details of Budget 2015 because it is confidential until the Budget is released. What I can say about the Counties Manukau District Health Board is that it received in the last financial year $1.33 billion worth of funding and that is an increase of $311 million since this Government took office.Hon Annette King: Is the Minister aware that the Counties Manukau District Health Board has been told it would get $23.61 million for 2015-16 when it is predicting a shortfall just in this year alone of $35 million?Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: As I have already said to that member—and that member knows the Budget process—I cannot release that figure. What I can say is that since this Government took office there are now 220 more doctors on the front line. There are now 433 more nurses on the front line in the Counties Manukau District Health Board and there are now in terms of orthopaedic surgery more patients who are operated on in the Counties Manukau District Health Board region and that member should know all of this.