Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10550] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 My friend colleague and bench mate David Cunliffe has outlined very clearly to this House the challenge this Government has presented to the country: the challenge of having a Government that has no plan no ideas no vision and no action. The challenge for New Zealanders is getting harder every day. 
In the health area every week we have further reports of new health cuts. Front-line health services are cut patients are going without any services at all and the Minister who promised the country that no front-line health services would be cut and who promised to move resources and health from the back room to the front line now stands up in this House and washes his hands of all ministerial responsibility. I say to the Minister that if it is good enough to take the credit for the hard work that doctors and nurses and the health bureaucracy deliver around the country then it is good enough to take responsibility when things go bad and they are absolutely going bad in health. 
This afternoon in the House I asked the Minister of Health about Bill English’s comment that the Government was going to cut low-value services. I asked the Minister of Health whether the 3000 elderly people in Otago and Southland who have had their home support cut have been getting low-value services. Those services are not low-value to them. Those home support services provide 1½ or 2 hours of home help for older people in their own homes. Mr Assistant Speaker Roy this is in your very own part of the country—that great part of the country Southland—and in your next-door neighbour Otago. For those older people those services are the difference between being safe and well in their own homes and having to move into a rest home. The Minister of Health has cut those services. He has cut home support for 3000 people in that region of Otago-Southland. 
In Nelson where the Minister of Health’s bench-mate has been elected until the election next year mental health services have been cut. It is very obvious to everyone that mental health is not an area where we have excess services. We do not have a lot of spare capacity in mental health; if anything we need more resources and support going into mental health. In Nelson those services have been cut. 
In Palmerston North—and soon in Levin—for the first time that I can recall we have actually had nurses laid off. Nursing positions have been disestablished while those people are in their jobs. It is an outrage that the people in Levin who fought so hard to ensure that the services were retained in the Horowhenua Health Centre are now being told that all the work and all the commitment they put into getting a deal with the Government of the time is now being ripped up and thrown out. All that passion from the people of Levin Otaki Waikanae and Shannon and those surrounding areas has been thrown in the rubbish bin by Tony Ryall. 
I tell members that things are going to get worse in the Budget next month. I have figures provided by the district health boards about what they expect their increases to be in the Budget this year. If we think it is bad now wait until we see the Budget. In the last Budget Canterbury District Health Board got $51 million. It is expecting just over $36 million this year. That will not allow it to stay still let alone offer any improvements. MidCentral District Health Board in the area I have just referred to is already cutting front-line health services cutting nurse positions in Levin taking away all the assessment treatment and rehabilitation beds at the Horowhenua Health Centre and cutting out district nursing for terminally ill Palmerston North citizens. Last year it had an increase of $26.5 million; this year it will get $11 million. That is a cut and Tony Ryall the Minister of Health will have to justify that. The South Canterbury District Health Board is just managing to hold things together in its area. There are 5000 fewer people going through its emergency department. Last year it got an increase of just under $6 million. This year in the Budget it will receive an increase of less than $5 million. 
The manifesto of the National Party should say health cuts not health services.