Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 01 July 2008. Volume:648;Page:17030. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does he stand by his statement of 19 May 2008 that “in 2001/02 there were 199 discharges from elective surgery procedures per 10000 people. In 2006/07 that had grown by 207 people per 10000”; if so why? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Associate Minister of Health) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister of Health 
: Yes; but as the member was advised last Friday in reply to his written question there was a typo in the statement and the word “by” should have been “to”. It should have read that “in 2001/02 there were 199 discharges from elective surgery procedures per 10000 people. In 2006/07 that had grown to 207 people per 100000”. New Zealanders will see this as great news about our well-resourced public health system. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Can the Minister confirm that this data only counts elective surgery for adults not children and that when children are included the elective surgery rates per head of population have hardly changed at all; and is this another example of what he calls a “factual misunderstanding”? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I have explained the typographical error. I confirm that those figures relate just to adults but even when we take into account elective surgery for children we see that the rate has gone up. I cannot trust any of the statistics from slippery National Party members. I am quite happy to go away and find out the details of any of the questions the member has and give him factual answers not the fiction that he keeps coming up with. 
Jill Pettis 
: Can the Minister confirm that notwithstanding Mr Ryall’s constant attempts to undermine the health system the number of elective surgeries has increased under this Labour Government; if so by how many? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Yes; last year alone 7000 more elective procedures were carried out than in the previous year. It is about time the National Party fronted up and told New Zealanders how deep the cuts would be to the public health system if National were ever given the chance to take the reins of power. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Does the Minister stand by other surgery-related figures he has released such as his claim that the number of patients getting a surgical first specialist assessment had doubled under Labour when he must have known he was comparing a half-year result in 2001 with a full-year result in 2007; and what sort of “factual misunderstanding” is that? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Again those are slippery figures from Tony Ryall. The reality is that in 2001 there were 123943 surgical first specialist assessments and in 2007 there were 241000. That is the kind of progress that we have made in the public health system and I know that under a National Government New Zealanders will be bound to John Key’s philosophy: “Well in the end it’s called the market. If general practitioners decide to charge a lot more then probably someone will go down the road.” That is his attitude to general practitioner fees and the public health system and it is the attitude of Tony Ryall as well. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister aware that the 2001 figure he gave is a half-year figure and that is why the figure doubled and that in fact there has been a complete flat-line showing that fewer New Zealanders get a first specialist appointment today than 9 years ago? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I quoted the figures that have been given to me and I do not for a moment believe any of the statistics that are put out by National Party members because they have to change them time and time again as they do with their policy and ideas. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What sort of factual misunderstanding is behind the Minister’s claim yesterday that hospital emergency departments are performing well for seriously ill and injured patients—triage 2—where he said: “Auckland is seeing these patients faster” when in fact it is taking longer and when some of our biggest emergency departments like Waitemata and Wellington are falling behind? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I do not accept the member’s claims for a moment. We are constantly barraged by wild claims accusations and attacks on the public health system by National Party members. They are not prepared to front up and say what National would do should it ever get into power. We know that National would undermine and dismantle the public health system and we would see a drastic reduction in all services. This Government has put billions of dollars of extra funding into the public health system and it is delivering more benefits to New Zealanders in every single area of its performance. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: When the Minister talked about a “factual misunderstanding” last week did he mean that he misspoke; and what other “Clintonesque” excuse does he have for the fact that despite the doubling of the public health budget there has been hardly any increase in elective surgery or first specialist assessments for New Zealanders? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: That member might call it “hardly any” but I say that 10000 additional elective surgeries is a huge improvement that has made a huge difference to the lives of at least 7000 New Zealanders. If that member wants to belittle that progress and what that has done for 7000 New Zealanders then God help us if he ever were to become Minister of Health. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I seek leave to table evidence that the dramatic increase in hospital operations in this country occurred in 1998 as a result of the New Zealand First budgetary initiatives which— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I seek leave to table a press statement that used the figures the Minister used in his answer which was subsequently retracted— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? Yes there is.