8. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What reports, if any, has he received on the impact on patients of being removed from waiting lists for elective surgery or specialist appointments?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
More than half a million New Zealanders are removed from waiting lists each year because they have received their specialist appointment or their surgery. That number grows every year. My concern is with the few thousand each year who do not receive the treatment they should.
How long will it take for the 17,000 or so patients whose care was disrupted by the junior doctors’ strike to get their appointments and surgery, and what effect will this have on others who are waiting for specialist appointments and elective surgery?
Those 17,000 people will be rebooked or rescheduled any time from today, over the next several weeks or, indeed, in some cases, I would imagine, in a couple of months or more. That, of course, will cause a knock-on effect throughout society, but help is on the way. This Government increases health funding every year. It increases the amount of service delivery to the health system every year, therefore we will be able to catch up.
Darien FentonHas he seen reports on the number of people treated in public hospitals, including elective surgery, last year; if so, how does that figure compare with the position 5 years ago?
I have seen reports showing that Labour’s historic investment in public hospitals and clinical staff has led to a 20 percent increase in medical activity, a nearly 10 percent increase in case-weighted surgical activity, and a 12.6 percent increase in elective case-weighted surgical activity, in just the first 5 years of our Government. No matter which way the Opposition tries to spin it, our public hospitals are helping more New Zealanders than ever before.
Heather RoyWhat reports has he seen about how much longer Wellingtonians and Hutt Valley residents will have to wait for an appointment with a public specialist after 1 November this year, when laboratory tests ordered by private specialists will attract a $13 encounter fee as well as the cost of the laboratory tests, but referrals from public specialists will not?
Is it not a fact that his own ministry has admitted that more people will be culled from hospital waiting lists as a result of the strike, because if one is going to take 17,000 people and fit them back in the system, then there will be a large number of people who drop off at the end because of the Government’s rule that patients will be cut off the waiting list, regardless of their illness, after 6 months?
The member should pay closer attention to the press reports around that issue. We signalled last week that we would need to relax, somewhat, the period by which district health boards would become compliant with their elective services patient flow indicators—it depends on the board. The reason for doing that is precisely to take account of the recent 5-day strike.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
What hope does the current management of the waiting list system give to Tayla, the little 8-year-old girl from Kapiti who cannot smile, raise her eyebrows, or move her eyes, who needs plastic surgery to restore those most basic functions and who has now been kicked off the waiting list for surgery, under that Minister’s direction?
The member raises a valid issue, which I first became aware of a couple of weeks ago. The Ministry of Health is working with the Hutt Valley District Health Board to assess the adequacy of scoring tools, the adequacy of provision, the degree to which general practitioners could be further dealing with minor plastic surgery issues, and so on. I hope we are able to make progress on that issue.
Dr Jackie BlueWhat would the Minister tell Aletia Hudson, aged 33, who was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at Christmas 2005, had a mastectomy, was promised a breast reconstruction in a timely way, has since completed the chemotherapy and radiotherapy, fund-raised $12,000 for taxane treatment, and should be starting lifesaving Herceptin treatment this month but has not, because she cannot raise the $100,000 needed, only to find out 2 weeks ago that her breast reconstruction operation was no longer possible?
I too have reservations about that case, and several dozen like them. I look forward to seeing that issue resolved in the best interest of patients, using the techniques that I relayed in respect of the Hutt Valley District Health Board.
Can the Minister confirm that the Ministry of Health has written to district health boards telling them that despite several weeks of industrial disruption the Government expects district health boards to make up for services lost during the strike, and to make those up in the remaining two and a bit weeks of the financial year or face a financial penalty, and is he not just continuing to delude himself that he can fix that problem?
No, I cannot confirm that. There was a change made to that letter about 2 weeks ago, and I made that change public. The member should try to keep on top of his portfolio.
I seek leave of the House to table a letter, jointly signed by the chief executives of Capital and Coast District Health Board and Hutt Valley District Health Board, sent to specialists saying that laboratory tests ordered by private specialists, as from 1 November, will be charged for.