Roy Heather: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Roy Heather: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14229] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to support what the previous speaker Chris Tremain said. We too support John Key’s motion and have no confidence in this Labour Government. 
I am glad the member raised the issue of health because this Labour Government’s commitment to health care is clear in the Prime Minister’s statement. On page 11 of a 14-page speech we have less than half a page—six bullet points—on health care when $1 out of every $5 of Government spending goes into health. An extra $5 billion has been poured into health under this Labour Government for no visible gain. Why are there six bullet points? It is because this Government has no idea what to do to resurrect the public health sector. 
The story that has emerged over the last couple of months—and with no thanks to the Government—at the Capital and Coast District Health Board is a very good indication of the perilous state our public health system is in. On 13 November last year the Minister of Health David Cunliffe received a phone call from the chair of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. That phone call was made to express the chair’s dismay that the deaths of three Hawke’s Bay patients within the last 3 months were preventable deaths needless deaths because the clinicians who treated those patients had been unable to access surgery for them at the Capital and Coast District Health Board which is supposed to be providing a tertiary service to that area. They had been very badly let down. When patients are dying and a Minister of Health—a “caring” Minister of Health he calls himself—is notified that this is happening— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: He’s running the show. 
HEATHER ROY 
: —yes he is apparently running the show but not very well—then a Minister of Health worth his or her salt would immediately instigate a review to find out what had gone wrong. But what did this Minister do? He did nothing. 
He received a phone call and he received advice from the Ministry of Health. On 6 December I raised in this House the issue that patients had died because they could not access heart surgery at the Capital and Coast District Health Board. The Minister of Health’s response was to say that he had absolutely no knowledge of what I was talking about and that I should bring the information to him. As a backbench Opposition MP I do not have the access to information that Mr Cunliffe has but he claimed he had no knowledge of this matter despite the fact that he had had a phone call and information from the Ministry of Health. He launched a vicious personal attack on me saying that it was a cynical show to attract media attention. I say shame on the Minister of Health because as I made Official Information Act requests of various district health boards the facts emerged. The Hawke’s Bay District Health Board was brave enough to give me the information to prove to the Minister of Health that this was not a cynical show at all but the reality. It is the reality not only for the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board but also for the public health service around this country under the Labour Government which has done nothing to improve health care in 9 long years. 
The Minister was of course told that I was making these Official Information Act requests and on 1 February he put out a press release. It is not available on his website incidentally; it is available only from Scoop because it is a shamefaced attempt to rectify a situation that he should have done something about 2½ months earlier. He stated in this release: “It is not acceptable to have patients waiting excessively long periods of time to receive surgery in a specialty such as this so we are taking action to fix it.” He will fix it with a review. Patients die and we have reviews only when the media and backbench Opposition MPs raise these issues even though the Minister has known about them for 2½ months and has sat on his hands. So we will have a review recommendations will be made that will be imposed on the hard-working doctors and nurses at the coalface who are supposed to keep working in the face of adversity and nothing will change. 
What this country needs is not only a change in Government but also a change in direction. It needs a Government that will not have philosophical blinkers that prevent providers from participating in the process. What this Government has failed to do and what a change of Government and a change of direction would do is to provide for New Zealand people the best-quality health care in the best time and at the best cost. New Zealanders deserve nothing less.