Dyson Ruth: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Dyson Ruth: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12714] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Vote Health estimates this evening. We have heard from the Minister of Health a lot of figures being bandied about but now is the time for this Parliament and the public to hear the true story about what the Budgets of last year and this year mean for front-line health services in our country. The truth is that they mean just one thing and that is cuts to front-line health services. 
The Minister admitted today having received the question that he was not comfortable with the numerous announcements of health cuts in the last 20 months and there have been numerous front-line health service cuts. That is in direct contradiction to what the Minister when he was in Opposition and his colleagues said up and down the country. They went to meeting after meeting and said: “We’ll put more money into health. We’ll move services from the back room to the front line. There will be no cuts to front-line health services.” Tony Ryall is a Tui billboard because whenever the Minister says there will be no cuts just changes to front-line health services the whole country including his caucus colleagues say “Yeah right!”. We know that because of the Minister’s decisions and his budget cuts front-line health services are being cut all around the country. The truth is that the component of the Vote Health budget that gets to district health boards is where the rubber meets the road. That is where the crunch decisions are being made. 
If we look at last year’s health budget and at health inflation population growth and the forthcoming increase in GST we see that we are left with a $300 million hole in the health budget. That is how much the health budget is short of in order for it to stay still. That is what the Minister has given the country of New Zealand. Front-line district health board services will get a 3.5 percent increase on average. If we look at those factors—population growth health and inflation—and at other factors that we know are coming down the track such as wage increases and a GST increase that is not very far away we have to ask what it all means. Six percent inflation and a 3.5 percent increase for district health boards means that there will be no alternative but to cut further health services. There will be more health cuts as a result of the decisions that Tony Ryall and his Cabinet colleagues made in the Budget. 
According to the Budget documents themselves public health will be cut. This Budget delivered by Tony Ryall for health means that spending on public health will be cut by $68 million over 4 years spending on mental health will be cut by $12 million over 4 years and the Primary Health Care Strategy money will be cut by $58 million over 4 years. 
Sandra Goudie 
: They never do their homework. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: When the Minister in the chair Tony Ryall resorts to Sandra Goudie as the cheerleader it is time to call for reinforcements. He has Dr Blue giving his urgent messages to Michael Woodhouse. Mr Ryall says via Dr Blue his messenger: “Make sure you talk about this Mr Woodhouse.” Then he gets Sandra Goudie to be his cheerleader—desperate times. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: It used to be Jonathan Coleman. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: It was Jonathan Coleman but the Minister has given up asking him because he made such an absolute mess of things. 
We heard in the House today the response to my request under the Official Information Act about mental health funding. We know that at Capital and Coast District Health Board this year the Budget has cut mental health funding by $5 million. The Minister describes that as low-value spending when he is not brushing it aside as being changes not cuts. 
The older people in the electorate that Bill English apparently lives in Southland— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Wellington Central? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: No not Wellington Central. He apparently lives in Dipton. 
In Southland and in Invercargill where the Minister’s colleague Eric Roy currently is the member home support has been cut for thousands of older people. According to the Minister it was low-value spending. It is not just the hours that individuals had been getting that have been cut; a whole service has been exited. In Otago and Southland where older people used to get laundry house cleaning and meal preparation done the district health board in the area that is Michael Woodhouse’s hometown—and I imagine he will take a call later in this debate unless he has been told by the Minister not to do so—has said to anyone who had their laundry done their house cleaned or meals prepared that “We don’t do that any more.” The district health board has not just cut their hours; it has exited the entire service. What can be more front line than cooking someone’s meal and doing his or her laundry? That is the cut that has occurred in Otago and Southland. It is not just a cut in hours; it is a complete exiting of the service. 
No amount of the Minister saying that those were changes not cuts will change the fact that many people’s lives have been dramatically altered and many older people are now living lonely and in fear often without the tiny bit of support that enabled them to live in their own home with a quality of life and dignity— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: Here comes a story. 
Hon David Carter 
: No story! 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Michael Woodhouse and David Carter can laugh but it is not funny when people in their 80s have no support funded by the health system. 
I will give the Committee of the whole House another example of what cuts in health services have meant. I was very disappointed with the Minister last Thursday and again today because he is not on top of his portfolio enough to follow pleas for help that come via family members sometimes reported in the newspaper and sometimes directly to the Minister himself. The Minister should go through the basic standard exercise of checking the newspapers and his correspondence before he comes to the House. He should check his phone records and see what family members have contacted his office for help. He has given a commitment to help those families but no help has eventuated. 
There is one case that I want to repeat a plea for help with. My understanding is that as of today—5 days since I raised it in the House—the Minister has not done a single thing to help. I refer to the tragic incident of a 69-year-old man who has Parkinson’s disease and mild dementia who has been put into Rimutaka Prison because he had nowhere else to go. The lawyer for the man contacted me today and said that the Minister assured the House last Thursday that something would be done but as of today when the lawyer contacted me nothing had been done. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Read your mail. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: I hope that the Minister has done something. I hope that that man is out of Rimutaka Prison and is in a secure and supported environment in the community. If he is not in a secure supported environment and faces a similar charge again under the justice system he unfortunately will be liable to the “three strikes” legislation which means that he would be indefinitely detained in prison for a very very long time. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I’ve written to you about this today. Don’t go there. You won’t say this tomorrow. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: The Minister is burbling on but not once during the entire course of question time did he say that anything had been done for that man. He denied knowledge of that situation in the same way that today he denied knowledge of another situation where a person who deserves support to live safely in his or her own home and community is being denied it. That is not a result of any failing of a doctor a nurse or any other professional. It is not a failing of a district health board. It is the direct result of the cuts in the health budget that we are debating in the estimates tonight. They are cuts that the Minister calls changes; cuts that we know are direct cuts to front-line health services—something that during the election campaign in 2008 the Minister said would not happen. 
How does that make National members feel? They paraded up and down the country repeating the mantra: “We will move resources from the back room to the front line. There will be no cuts to front-line health services.” 
Nicky Wagner 
: This is the biggest health budget ever. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: How does Nicky Wagner feel when people from Christchurch ring her up and say: “We have had all our home support cut.”? Those are cuts not changes.