Yang Jian: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Yang Jian: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4229. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr JIAN YANG (National) 
: 
 Ni hao. I also would like to speak about National’s commitment to growing and protecting our public health system. The honourable member Paul Hutchison has done an excellent job of elaborating some of those achievements. We are committed to delivering a strong reliable public health system for all New Zealanders. This commitment is illustrated by our investment of $14.1 billion in health—the most ever—in Budget 2012. This investment is a clear signal that our National Government is delivering on our priority of providing better sooner health care services for all New Zealanders. 
As the honourable member Paul Hutchison just said I am very proud of the National Government’s track record on delivering our health services. A recent OECD report said that out of 28 OECD countries we had the third-highest growth in health spending for 2009-10—an increase of 3.1 percent in real terms compared with the OECD average growth rate of zero. This investment in health has led to better services and less bureaucracy. Also there are a record number of patients now getting elective surgery as the honourable member Paul Hutchison has just said. There are 27000 patients a year who are getting operations such as hip and knee replacements. These people who would otherwise be living their lives in discomfort are now looking forward to a brighter future thanks to National. 
We are offering better care for cancer patients. They have access to faster treatment with radiation starting within 4 weeks for those who need it. National has expanded this target to include chemotherapy. Since National came to power in 2008 no patient has had to travel to Australia for radiation treatment. Under Labour some patients either had a 15-week wait for radiation treatment or had to be shipped to Australia because the health service was failing under Labour. Under the leadership of National New Zealanders can be assured that they will be getting the best medical assistance should they need the services of the public health system. 
Other significant improvements under National have seen record successes of emergency departments treating patients faster. Ninety-two percent of emergency department patients are admitted discharged or transferred within 6 hours. Record numbers of children are being immunised—92 percent of 2-year-olds compared with 73 percent under Labour—and record numbers of smokers are quitting. And we are not stopping there. We want to see more improvements so that New Zealanders have access to better sooner health care. That is why 93 percent of under-sixes can now see their general practitioner for free during the day compared with 70 percent in 2008. This year National has extended this to include free after-hours doctors’ visits and 90 percent of children under 6 benefit from this. This has been possible because National has invested $65 million in the zero fees scheme over the past 3 years. 
We are committed to eradicating rheumatic fever with a doubling of our spending to $24 million in this year’s Budget to fight the disease over 5 years. This includes school-based sore throat swabbing services involving 100 schools and 35000 children to help with the early detection of throat infections which could lead to disease. Just the other week our Minister of Health announced that Auckland District Health Board will receive an extra $2.5 million over the next 3 years to improve productivity and provide more care for patients. That is good news. 
The National-led Government is committed to building a brighter future for New Zealand. We are on track to achieve this. Thank you.