Wagner Nicky: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Wagner Nicky: New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:663;Page:11029] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I rise to support the first reading of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill. 
There is no doubt that the provision of more than just adequate public health and disability services to the people of New Zealand is one of the biggest challenges in our country now and in the future. New Zealanders expect that living in a First World country they should have access to the very best cutting-edge health services available. But as our population ages and as our economy struggles in comparison with those of other nations this is a real economic challenge. We all want a champagne health service on a beer income. But this is not new in New Zealand and I take inspiration from Ernest Rutherford’s quote “We haven’t got the money so we’ve got to think.” Back in the early 20th century at Cambridge University when Rutherford was working on splitting the atom he had funding challenges but he used his money intelligently and well and finished up with a Nobel Prize for his work. New Zealand’s health services face similar funding challenges today. 
The Government’s responsibility is to use the funding we have in the most efficient and effective manner. This bill introduced today is a drive for better value for money out of our public health sector with the intention of providing a framework to foster economies of scale through national and regional cooperation in the sector and to reduce duplication and bureaucracy. Just like Ernest Rutherford “We haven’t got the money so we’ve got to think.” and I would add nearly 100 years later that we have to think smarter. 
New Zealanders want and need more for their money out of the health system but we definitely do not want to sacrifice quality and that is a tough call. But fortunately it is not always impossible. Different groups within the health system are working hard to find ways to simplify processes to reconfigure premises and to work in different ways to improve both efficiency and effectiveness. There are situations where we can maintain quality but spend less money doing it. Sometimes if organisations are particularly creative they can even find new ways to improve services that still cost less. 
Members of the Health Committee have seen a number of examples where district health boards have managed to improve their services without additional cost. In my home town of Christchurch we have seen the Canterbury District Health Board focus on the patient’s journey and that has meant that patients can move through the system more quickly and therefore at less cost and often with better health outcomes. Canterbury District Health Board’s emphasis on better and more convenient health-care sooner is showing real benefits for my community. 
The bill will provide a range of amendments to the way that administrators run the health system and I can see particular benefits in the amendments that support the provisions of shared administrative supportive and procurement services. It is just a matter of economy of scale. New Zealand is a small country and our health system is particularly fragmented. To provide goods and services to a multitude of small organisations is enormously costly. So members can be sure that right now the district health boards will be paying top dollar for their products and their delivery. 
Organisations that work closely together to share the overhead costs of procurement and supply chain will cut costs and if they can collaborate over efficiency measures such as integrated information technology systems they will certainly be able to stretch our health dollar further. 
I support this bill. It is a good step forward in providing a framework to help New Zealand bridge the gap between our expectations of health care and the dollars that we need to provide it.