Blue Jackie: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Blue Jackie: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4300] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 The Labour Government is failing ordinary New Zealanders. It has had 7 years to prove itself and it is failing miserably. Under Labour New Zealanders are getting sicker—yes sicker. This month Judith Collins National’s welfare spokesperson exposed figures showing that a staggering 122000 New Zealanders were on the sickness and invalid benefits. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: How many? 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: It was 122000. That is more than the population of Hamilton City or Dunedin City. Judith Collins showed that the numbers of people drawing those benefits had increased by 47 percent and 38 percent respectively under this Labour Government. That is an astonishing figure. The population has not increased by 40 or 50 percent so what is going on with New Zealand’s health we can ask. Why are New Zealanders getting sicker? I will tell colleagues what is happening and it is not good. 
They are not getting the operations or drugs they desperately need. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are being dumped from waiting lists and not getting the procedures that specialists say they need. Why are they being dumped? They are being dumped because the hospitals do not have the resources to do the operations. That is despite the millions of extra funding that has gone into a bloated health bureaucracy. Half of all the district health boards are struggling to match last year’s numbers of operations. Compared with 5 years ago fewer patients are getting elective surgery. Patients now have to be sicker to get an elective operation and because they have to wait longer the operations are more complex more complicated and bigger. It does not make sense. There is no logic in it. There is not a lot of sense in Labour’s failed policies. 
Recently there was some publicity about medical adverse events that cost taxpayers a massive $850 million each year. That is serious money. The figure comes from a 2002 study. We would think that the Government would sit up and take notice of that report and implement immediate and urgent steps to reduce medical adverse events—not only to reduce the pain and suffering of New Zealanders but also to save money. But has it? No it certainly has not. 
This Government is interested in spending money and not in saving money. This Government is more interested in wasting hard-working New Zealand taxpayers’ money than in relieving New Zealanders’ pain and suffering. The irony is that although this Government is happy to spend money as if there were no tomorrow in pharmaceuticals it is the opposite case. That is an area where the Government needs actually to be spending money but it is doing the exact opposite.  
Darren Hughes 
: Who wrote this rubbish? 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Shut up Darren. You might learn something. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: Yes he might learn something! The per capita amount of pharmaceutical spending has been flat-lining and dropping over the last 5 years. Pharmac’s annual budget is not even keeping up with inflation or the consumer price index. 
Darren Hughes 
: All these prepared speeches. It is a debating chamber. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: There has actually been a press release this afternoon from that member’s Government. It has announced an increase in Pharmac’s budget to $600 million which is up from $582 million in last year’s budget. But when one works out the figures one finds that that figure represents an increase of only 3 percent which in no way will match the 11 percent predicted increase in prescription volumes. So it is pretty simple to work out that we are going backwards quite fast. This has done a disservice to New Zealanders. They are not getting the drugs they desperately need to keep them well and out of hospital. 
A recent study shows that in the last 6 years Australians have had access to 58 more new emanated medicines than have New Zealanders. New Zealanders are missing out on medicines compared with their counterparts in Australia. This study also confirmed that the few drugs we have in common are more restricted and more difficult to access than in Australia. Pharmac tried to fudge the issue and even the Minister was reported in the House for fudging it and saying that New Zealanders had access to more medicines than Australians. Government members were very very quiet when the detail of it was worked out. It was pointed out that Pharmac included items such as condoms peak flow metres Janola and calamine lotion. These are hardly lifesaving and innovative new drugs. It takes far too long to get drugs through Pharmac’s process.