10. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Is he concerned about the Government’s ability to meet New Zealanders’ need for elective surgery; if not, why not?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
While I am delighted that the number of elective surgery procedures has increased by 12.6 percent on a case-weighted basis under this Government, and by more than that when outpatient procedures are taken into account, there is always more to be done. This Government will never be complacent.
If hospital budgets have increased by over 25 percent in the last 5 years, why do New Zealand patients need to have more and more points, and to be more and more sick, before they get any access to elective surgery?
I cannot remember by how much the member said hospital budgets had been raised. Could he repeat that? [ Interruption] Well, whatever it was, it was less than 74.6 percent; yet that is the amount by which angioplasty interventions have increased since the change of Government—not bad, I would say.
Sue MoroneyWhat have been the results of the Government’s work to increase the total number of surgical procedures performed in New Zealand’s public hospitals?
The results have been significant. In 2005 there were over 300,000 case-weighted surgical discharges from our public hospitals—an increase of nearly 10 percent—not including the increase in outpatients. Under this Government more and more New Zealanders are getting the surgery they need, but, unlike the previous National Government, we are never complacent and we remain convinced that we can do even better.
Which of those numbers quoted by the Minister includes the many thousands of New Zealanders who merely passed through a surgical ward and received no surgical services whatsoever in the years under review, yet have been counted?
The method by which surgical procedures are measured is unchanged over many years. If I could just give the member a little more detail, the precise method is that if someone is admitted, then not given—[ Interruption] Oh, well, I will not give him the detail.
Madam SPEAKERWho is talking out there? Who actually intervened? Could that member please identify himself or herself and leave the Chamber. [ Interruption] Please leave the Chamber.
How can the Minister justify dumping from the waiting lists, in the last 2 months for which information is available, 1,100 people for whom medical specialists consider that elective surgery is the best option and who are likely to deteriorate without it?
Does the Minister not think that it is harder to cross the treatment threshold when the Government’s district health boards keep putting the points up?
I seek leave to table the evidence—documents from Capital and Coast District Health Board, from Northland District Health Board, from MidCentral District Health Board, and from Auckland District Health Board, showing that points needed to get elective surgery in this country are going up in category after category.
I seek leave to table a letter from the Hon Bill English as Minister of Health to all Crown health enterprises, instructing them to raise the thresholds.
Hon Mark BurtonI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Yet again during that point of order we had a barrage of rudeness from that side of the House, including from the member who had just been given the courtesy of silence while he took his point of order.
Exactly. I will have to talk to the whips about that, unless some of you want to identify yourselves. I was asked to eject someone else from the Chamber for interjecting when there was a question, which I have done. When there was a point of order, I got interjections from this side. I have to be fair.
Gerry Brownlee
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
When the Minister makes statements relating to elective surgery, is the Minister wearing his hat as the Minister of Health, as a former vet, or as a former fruit and vegetable seller; and assuming that he places a different premium on the life of a human, an animal, and a vegetable, is it possible that he sometimes gets his hats confused?