12. Maternity Services—Funding and Midwife NumbersDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of HealthMaternity Services—Funding and Midwife Numbers12. Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of Health: Is he confident that new mothers are being supported in public hospitals?Hon NICKY WAGNER (Associate Minister of Health) on behalf of the Minister of Health: Yes absolutely. Our Government prioritises the health of mothers and babies but as always in health we are keen to continue to improve our services to meet the expectations of every new mother.Dr David Clark: Is he confident that the district health boards (DHBs) have enough funding to ensure that there are enough midwives rostered on in the weekends or after hours in hospitals when new mothers like Mary-Lou Harris who experienced complications at birth are left unsupported overnight and feel unsafe because nurses are too overstretched on wards?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Yes we are. There are 1377 midwives working in DHBs across the country and that is a record. There are 2980 more midwives working in our health system. The ministry is aware that there are some urban DHBs that experience difficulty recruiting sufficient midwives but this is a distribution issue rather than an issue of short supply. The ministry has a number of initiatives to support local midwives and new graduate midwives through voluntary bonding and locum support. We are also successfully recruiting overseas.Dr David Clark: Does he accept responsibility for the fall since 2013 in the number of midwives per capita employed by DHBs under his watch?Hon NICKY WAGNER: I know that the member is new to health but he may not have heard what I said. There are 1377 midwives working in DHBs and a record 2980 working in our health system. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Supplementary question Dr David Clark.Dr David Clark: I will just recover after that put-down. Give me a minute to compose myself please.Mr SPEAKER: If the member needs time to take a spell we will be moving on.Dr David Clark: Does he think it is acceptable that new mother Lisa Calino who needed to go to the bathroom and had just had a caesarean was told by a nurse that she had to move and put her son back in the cot herself because the nurse on call said: You'll have to do that. We are understaffed."?Hon NICKY WAGNER: I am always very sorry to hear that circumstances are such that our healthcare has not met the expectations of all mothers. But I would like to report what the norm is. Our survey says that 85 percent of new mothers report that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their time in labour and birth and 90 percent of new mothers said that they were confident or very confident in the skills of the care that they are getting in hospital and 80 percent of them were satisfied or very satisfied with the overall care that they received after the birth. So I am very sorry for your patient but that is not the norm.Dr David Clark: What outcomes has Health Workforce New Zealand's midwifery strategic advisory group delivered in light of the comment of the chief executive of the New Zealand College of Midwives who sits on that group that "We just meet. That's all we do. Nothing happens."?Hon NICKY WAGNER: I am very sorry to hear that comment. They tell me that they are working very hard and delivering better health for mothers and babies and certainly we are resourcing them to do so.Dr David Clark: What responsibility does he take for the significant funding problem that sees the Waikato District Health Board 22 full-time midwives down and Capital and Coast District Health Board nine midwives down and that sees DHBs like Waikato expected to make savings in nurse vacancies to manage its deficit and is he confident that all funds allocated to DHBs for maternity services are entirely being spent on maternity services and not being used to fund other overstretched services?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Yes. We are sure that they are using their money for maternity services because we are prioritising the health of mothers and babies. What is more the member—[Interruption]—I know he is new to health—is absolutely wrong when he says that we have had less funding because we have increased our funding by $4.3 billion. We have moved it from $11.8 billion to $16.1 billion which is the most money that has ever been spent on health and certainly we are right behind mothers and their babies."