Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:12841] 
5.  
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Has she received any reports on the roll-out of the primary health-care strategy? 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Acting Minister of Health):  
Yes I have. The most recent  
New Zealand Doctor 
 magazine shows that the majority of doctors want the primary health organisations to continue as they are. I have received another report stating that the primary health organisations should be scrapped. Those comments were made by Dr Don Brash and Dr Lynda Scott. It is clear that the continued provision of accessible and affordable primary health-care depends on the continuation of a Labour-led Government. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What role do midwives and nurse practitioners play in primary health organisations? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: The role of midwives in primary health organisations as the lead maternity carer is a critical one. More than 70 percent of women having babies have a lead maternity carer and that has greatly relieved the workload of general practitioners. Nurse practitioners are playing an increasingly important role in primary health organisations and this Government has supported the professional development of nurses through funding for post-graduate training programmes and rural practitioner nursing scholarships. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Has the Minister come to the realisation that her race-based funding and insistence on high Maori involvement at the primary health organisation governance level has created major problems in primary care such as rural fragmentation with Opotiki having two primary health organisations—one Maori and one other which do not communicate—and no after-hours cover such as a governance break-down in Hawke’s Bay where a primary health organisation for Maori has withdrawn citing irreconcilable differences and such as pepper-potting in Auckland where high Maori populations get cheap care and their neighbours do not despite need; and what will she do to address those serious implementation issues which are affecting all New Zealand? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: In answer to the question no because it has not. I suggest that that member take her own advice listen to the doctors nurses and nurse practitioners around the country and support accessible and affordable access to primary health-care through the primary health organisations. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Is she concerned at the inequity of the $3 pharmaceutical scheme which applies to people who are enrolled in an access primary health organisation but not to those in an interim primary health organisation and how can it be fair that under the scheme a poor person enrolled in an interim primary health organisation will not get cheap pharmaceutical drugs but a rich person enrolled in an access primary health organisation will get cheap pharmaceuticals? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: I certainly support the progressive roll-out of primary health organisations so that more and more New Zealanders are able to access the $3 capped prescription charges. Currently we have 3 million New Zealanders enrolled in 68 primary health organisations and that is a huge step forward. 
Steve Chadwick 
: How is the primary health-care strategy being received in rural areas? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Extremely well. My colleague Damien O’Connor last month attended the combined rural general practitioners and nurses conference and the feeling at that conference was overwhelmingly positive. The rural health initiatives such as reasonable roster funding workforce retention the recruitment service and the mobile surgical bus are just some of the examples of our Government’s commitment to improving the health of rural New Zealanders.