SpeechHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Chair. It has been an interesting evening listening to what's going on in terms of the different interpretations. I echo the sentiments very eloquently expressed by my colleague Michael Woodhouse and also Dr Shane Reti and latterly Matt Doocey. There is chaos in the health sector. There are things that remain unfunded. The strikes the disunity the sense of dissatisfaction I wasn't really aware of until I came into the Health Committee which I did in May. Since that time I have never seen so many petitions around Pharmac and what it needs to do better—the $200 million smoke and mirrors which was given back by Pharmac instead of reinvested in medicines to extend and save people's lives. What's going on with the moral compass here? Pharmac needs to be thoroughly investigated. There are far too many things that are not being done properly. The Metavivors the cancer drugs—these are the sorts of things that really matter and really count.The particular areas I'm interested in and follow specifically are around dementia and elder abuse and surgical mesh. These are all things I asked the Minister about at the Estimates hearing and I was underwhelmed by the responses—the surgical mesh for example; that is one of the ones I feel most keenly—because when in Opposition they were lions. There were extravagant promises about acting urgently setting up a register sorting out the surgical procedures getting people trained up so that they could remove the mesh that is causing such misery. It hasn't happened.So how much of urgent" takes two years to even begin to start consulting? It's not a working group. What do you call it when you go around asking people what you already know to continually repeat their stories? It is a waste of time basically.Maureen Pugh: Stalling.Hon MAGGIE BARRY: Stalling. That would be a good way to describe it. A stalling consultation exercise which is a sop to public opinion and does nothing to actually further the cause of the women and the men—because surgical mesh is an issue with men and hernias as well. We've seen that through the ACC numbers. But why have the Government not moved quickly on this? It is not that it's particularly expensive. When it comes to surgical mesh there are a few things that are needed. They need to have a particular code. It isn't particularly onerous. National has guaranteed and promised that we will set up a surgical mesh register and it will be retrospective. These are the sorts of things that this Government particularly in health has shown no leadership on. So much for urgency.Pharmac well as I said the petitions have been extraordinary and I cannot understand why the Better Public Services targets have been removed. It removes the ability of the Government and the Minister of Health to actually manage what's going on because to measure what's going on is to know how to manage it and the Better Public Services targets had managed to focus the health officials and the other entities on what they needed to deliver for the money they were getting. By removing those it has thrown things back into chaos. I think that is deplorable. There are a number of broken promises. New Zealand First is not without blame in this—missing in action for New Zealand seniors. In the campaign it was promised that there would be an annual health and eye check-up for seniors. Nothing has been done about it. I have asked the Minister written questions. I've done Official Information Act requests. There is absolutely nothing happening in that space and I think that's deplorable because New Zealand First got people's hopes up and now they have been dashed and the seniors feel very aggrieved about that and I don't blame them a bit.There was a promise to increase the age of breast screening to 74. It wasn't in the Budget. These are the kinds of measures that if you put them in and if you can therefore diagnose early and make a proper intervention early then you will save lives. And by the way you will save health dollars because it won't require such expensive interventions as people continue to progress with their disease. Bowel screening programmes: why has that not been rolled out? It has proved very successful in the Waitemata District Health Board and it is something that needs to happen. Maybe it is because as Michael Woodhouse pointed out probably about 20 if not 21 of the DHBs will be in deficit. They can't afford anything. They're in big difficulty. The $10-cheaper doctors visits for all: that wasn't in the Budget either—another broken promise. And the $20 million for access to lifesaving medicines for New Zealanders with rare disorders is something that comes up every week it seems in the Health Committee. Again today we heard that those medications were not going to be funded. Where's the money? Where's the access? Why are there so many broken promises?People's lives count for better than this and this Government is deplorably letting down the vulnerable older people and those who are sick in New Zealand."