King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16059. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) to theMinister of Health: What recent reports has he seen on inadequate standards of health care in New Zealand?Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health): The vast majority of reports I receive on the standard of health care in New Zealand are very positive. However I have seen a recent report about a small group of women whose experiences with maternity services in Counties Manukau were disappointing. It is unacceptable if any mother feels unwelcome or disrespected by maternity services and I have asked the district health board to report to me on what action it is taking to address these concerns.Hon Annette King: Why was the so-called increase in funding to Hutt Valley District Health Board not sufficient to prevent a recent audit report showing that conditions at the maternity ward the mental health unit and the children’s ward were so concerning that they were labelled as high risk with staff shortages overcrowding and a recurring flea problem that had been there since he became the Minister?Hon TONY RYALL: Our Government has given the Hutt Valley District Health Board an additional $59 million in the last 5 years. We have also supported much stronger auditing processes in district health boards. I am advised in respect of Hutt Valley District Health Board that it is addressing the issues that have been raised. New lino has been installed and the maternity unit has apparently been fumigated. I have to remind the member that fleas were reported at another hospital back in 2007 and in a hospital facility back in 2002. Who was the Minister of Health then?Hon Annette King: Why was the so-called increase in funding to Counties Manukau District Health Board not sufficient to address the serious shortcoming in maternity care including bed shortages inappropriate care overcrowding and vulnerable women being sent home 4 hours after giving birth after his promise for longer stays for mothers in hospitals—the promise he made in 2008-09?Hon TONY RYALL: Over the last 5 years we have given the Counties Manukau District Health Board $265 million worth of additional funding. There was a major review of maternity services that was commissioned in 2012. It identified that there were significant problems with dealing with vulnerable mothers particularly newPacific and Māori mothers. This research has been undertaken to inform the district health board and I am sure we are going to see improved services as a result.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table a document sent to me under an Official Information Act request from Counties Manukau showing that over 4 years there has been no improvement in the length of stay for vulnerable mothers—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Leave is sought to table an Official Information Act request that has been sent to the member—Hon Trevor Mallard: No. A reply not a request.Hon Annette King: It was a reply.Mr SPEAKER: A reply. I apologise. Is there any objection to that particular document? There is objection.Hon Annette King: Why should mental health patients in Christchurch be forced to live inPortacom and caravans which both health professionals and board members are concerned about even going—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not want your colleague there to continue holding up pieces of paper which is leading to disorder.Hon Annette King: We’re allowed to.Mr SPEAKER: I have asked the member to desist from doing so. That is the end of the matter.Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. For the many many years that I have been in this Parliament the use of visual aids—including your allowing me to use them only a few weeks ago—was permitted. Why is it not permitted now?Mr SPEAKER: Because it is leading to disorder. A visual aid might be one thing. To hold up lots of pieces of paper—copies of the newspaper—is not helping the order of this House. I have made a ruling. If the member wishes to carry on with her supplementary questions I suggest that she do so.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. It will be heard in silence.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Could I point you to Standing Order 109—Mr SPEAKER: 109?Hon Clayton Cosgrove: —109 Mr Speaker—and it says this: “A member may use an appropriate visual aid to illustrate a point being made during the member’s speech provided that the aid does not inconvenience other members or obstruct the proceedings …”. The second point says: “Such an aid may be displayed only when the member is speaking to a question before the House and must be removed from the Chamber at the conclusion of the member’s speech.” I would put it to you that the visual aid itself was innocuous. It was directed at the member’s question that was being asked and it has been a tradition to use visual aids as long as they are removed relatively quickly after the speech.Mr SPEAKER: I invite the member to look very carefully at that particular Standing Order. What it says is that the member can use a visual aid if the member specifically needs a visual aid to help that member make a point with a supplementary question. What we were seeing was an additional member of Parliament not the member asking the question using the visual aid which was in my opinion leading to disorder. If—[Interruption] Order! If the member asking the question finds that it is absolutely critical to making the point she is making I will allow that member but not any other member to use that aid to assist the Hon Annette King.Hon Annette King: Thank you Mr Speaker. It is critical to my question. Why should mental health patients in Christchurch be forced to live inPortacom and caravans which both health professionals and board members are concerned about—even going so far as to label the proposal as a “low-life ghetto”—when he was aware ofthe unprecedented demand for mental health services in Christchurch since the earthquake and has washed his hands of the problem?Hon TONY RYALL: We have been strongly supporting the Canterbury District Health Board since the earthquake. In the last 5 years $201 million worth of extra funding has gone into the Canterbury District Health Board. There are significant housing issues in Christchurch which are being dealt with and work is under way in that area but I do welcome any thinking the district health board can have about how it might be able to provide services for some of those more vulnerable people in the community on a temporary basis until more permanent accommodation can be provided.Hon Annette King: Has he received—[Interruption] Yes yes we have just heard from the “Brains Trust”. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Does the member want to continue with her question?Hon Annette King: Has he received any reports from front-line health professionals that on numerous occasions patient safety is compromised due to care rationing patients missing out on care or having their treatment delayed and reports that reportable events are often not getting past front-line managers? Has he received any of those reports?Hon TONY RYALL: I am sure that I have read some of the newspaper clippings that the member is using for those reports but also I have seen reports of people waiting 3 days on end under bright fluorescent lights at hospital emergency departments during the term of the previous Government. Next week we will be announcing the best performance ever by emergency departments in the New Zealand public health service.Hon Annette King: I seek leave to table an email I have received from a health professional working in a tertiary hospital setting out exactly what I have just put in my question. I am sure that the Minister has also received it—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Then we do not need any further explanation. Leave is sought to table an email received by the member from a health professional. Is there any objection to that email being tabled? There is objection.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I seek leave to table a set of statistics fromNew Zealand Doctor. I am advised that it is similarly limited in its availability as Mr Hague’s information fromNew Zealand Doctorwas from behind apaywall. This is a set of statistics that notes as its headline: “Labour’s King gains as Ryall slips in popularity”.Mr SPEAKER: Well I am going to let the House decide. Leave is sought to table that particular information from behind apaywall. Is there any objection? There is objection.Hon Member: They don’t like it.Mr SPEAKER: Order! And I do not like the noise levels of the interjections either.