Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:626;Page:21255] 
8.  
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does she stand by her statement regarding accident and emergency department waiting times: “Any patients who present with those conditions should be seen within that time and I believe they are.”; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Yes. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Why did the Minister also claim last Thursday: “If the member were to speak to clinicians they would tell him that no person who has had a heart attack or who is haemorrhaging waits longer than he or she needs to.” and does this not typify her failure to appreciate reality given that the benchmark report shows that 14 out of 21 district health boards fail to meet targets and that clinicians I have spoken to this very afternoon say that her statement is utter unadulterated nonsense? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No it means that I believe the clinicians. I direct the member to Dr Peter Freeman head of the emergency department at Capital and Coast District Health Board who said that patients in triage category 1 are seen immediately. I believe Dr Freeman. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Can the Minister confirm the concern raised in the House by Dr Hutchison on 8 June that 14 out of 21 district health boards failed to attend to serious conditions such as heart attack and massive bleeding? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No. Dr Hutchison misinformed this House on at least two occasions last week when he claimed that 14 of the 21 district health boards “failed to attend to serious conditions such as heart attacks massive bleeding …”. The latest report—the March 2005 report—did not show that at all. It showed that five of the 21 did not meet the benchmark. However the waiting time starts from a patient’s first contact with a triage nurse and runs until the consultation with a registered medical practitioner. Often the doctor does not log on to the medical records system until after he or she has completed the consultation. In other words doctors attend to the patient first then they log on to the system. That is why Dr Peter Freeman head of the emergency department in Wellington said that the triage report did not accurately reflect patient care. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The Minister has suggested that I misinformed the House. I believe that she has misinformed the House by not accurately recording my entire question which showed that 14 out of 21 district health boards in New Zealand failed to achieve the measured times that were recommended. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I will table the report because the member is portraying it incorrectly—for political purposes I think. It does not show what that member says it does. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the Minister care to table that report now. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I seek leave to table the latest benchmark report. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Barbara Stewart 
: What encouragement can the Minister offer to the staff and patients at Wellington Hospital’s emergency department given that patients who present with anything less serious than a heart attack massive bleeding or concussion may find themselves waiting in hallways storage facilities or the counselling room for treatment? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I am pleased to tell the member that quite a lot has been done at the Wellington Hospital emergency department. Opened only 4½ years ago it will have an assessment unit of 14 beds by August which will allow people to move through the emergency department faster and an ambulatory care zone for fast tracking of patients will be developed. It has a four-bed area that will be used for this purpose. So people in the department are doing the best they can. They are under pressure and they acknowledge that. However the head of their department tells me that they are seeing people appropriately. 
Heather Roy 
: Given that after-hours services have been closed or reduced at Taumarunui Winton Wellington Tauranga New Plymouth Upper Hutt Queenstown and Dunedin under her watch; that several boards are considering charging at accident and emergency departments; and that the latest  
New Zealand Doctor 
 polls show that half the country’s general practitioners are struggling with their after-hours situation does she rule out allowing accident and emergency departments to charge and how is it possible that she has such a disaster on her hands given that she has injected an extra $3.5 billion into health? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The only people who think we have an absolute disaster on our hands are members of the ACT party who are trying to get some sort of traction when they are 2 percent in the polls and getting absolutely nowhere. No patient is charged for an accident and emergency service that should be handled in a hospital. But for many years hospitals have offered out general practitioner services and patients are charged the same as they would be when going to any general practitioner. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Why has she not changed the system of recording triage times given that last Thursday she claimed it was a poor way of measuring data even though her ministry initiated the system and is this not just another case of an inept Minister ducking responsibility and trying to bluff and blather her way out of a very serious issue? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I thought the member who is a doctor would have known that triage times were not set by my ministry but by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. He will also know that the college is reviewing with the ministry the way we recall the triage times because they do not—as Dr Freeman said—accurately show the care a patient is getting. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Does the Minister agree with comments made by Helen Clark 9 years ago when she said: “We know that winter brings an increase in health problems. It happens every year but our hospitals must be ready to cope with the problems. It just isn’t good enough to have basic services break down.” and does she remain in denial that the reporting of patients being treated in the corridors of Wellington Hospital and of storage rooms being used for treatment is yet another sign that basic services have broken down? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes I agree with the Prime Minister. That is why under this Government the specialty of emergency medicine was introduced for the first time. One of the reasons Wellington Hospital is having some problems is that unfortunately there are not enough beds in the emergency department that was opened 4½ years ago. I wish the National Government had decided to make it bigger when they decided on its size in 1999.