9. Question No. 9—HealthHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 9—Health9. Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of Health: How many people have worked on the health system reform since it was announced on 21 April 2021 and is he confident this hasn't undermined efforts to prepare our health system for COVID-19?Hon PEENI HENARE (Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health)) on behalf of the Minister of Health: Thank you Mr Speaker. I am advised that as at August 78 individuals have made up the transition unit leading the reforms. Not all of these individuals are fulltime-equivalent. This is in addition to contributions from the core Public Service doing business as usual to support the work programme of the Government of the day. Thousands of other people have also contributed in over 500 engagements. They have included practitioners support workers administrators and NGO representatives. To the second part of the question: yes the overwhelming message we continue to get from the health sector is the reforms cannot come soon enough and we just need to get on with it.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Well in that case what does he say to the Auckland emergency nurse who told the New Zealand Herald: overworked nurses fear hospitals aren't ready for the Covid-19 tsunami and often think about quitting."?Hon PEENI HENARE: On behalf of the Minister I say that the work being done alongside DHBs to make sure that we have the surge capacity to be able to confront COVID-19 is well under way and is well supported and I have full confidence in it.Hon Michael Woodhouse: How many extra fully-staffed ICU beds could have been funded with the half a billion dollars being spent to restructure the health system?Hon PEENI HENARE: On behalf of the Minister what I know is that the surge capacity and the availability of beds I am satisfied with. We know that work has been done since the first lockdown to make sure that there is enough capacity and there are enough beds. To the part with respect to the funding put forward for the health reforms I'll repeat the part of the question in my primary answer which was that the overwhelming message from the sector is that these reforms can't come soon enough and they support what we're doing.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Will he take up the challenge of intensive care doctor Paul Young to "visit any ICU in the country and find one clinician (just one) who can show their newly staffed beds."?Hon PEENI HENARE: On behalf of the Minister my humble yet hard-working colleague Minister Henare has visited Rotorua Hospital and has made sure to visit and talk to ICU workers and administrators and is confident that we have put in place the support that they need to make sure that they can continue to respond to COVID-19.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Why did his Government wait until month 20 of the global pandemic to set aside managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) spots for international healthcare workers and is that delay one of the reasons a thousand operations a week are being cancelled?Hon PEENI HENARE: On behalf of the Minister we know that COVID-19 has provided particular challenges at the border. We know that as one of our best tools of protection is at the border and it's important we maintain the integrity of the MIQ system. We have allocated the opportunity for health practitioners to come into the country to make sure that they can continue to support the work that we are doing to respond to COVID-19 and I'm also confident that the current health sector that we have are doing a fantastic job something that's lost on that member."