4. 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
Yes, I am. Despite a 24 percent increase in hip replacements, a 52 percent increase in knee replacements, and a 75 percent increase in angioplasties since the change of Government, there are always improvements to make. This Government will pursue those improvements with vigour.
What responsibility will he take for the fact that 13,000 more people are now waiting for an appointment to see a specialist than when Labour was first elected, and that is despite clear evidence that district health boards up and down the country are culling patients who are waiting to see a specialist for the first time, such as in Hawke’s Bay and elsewhere around the nation?
That seems to be at variance with the member’s point of view around about Thursday of last week, when he said there was a drop in the number of people waiting to see a specialist and therefore something must be wrong because people cannot get on to the specialist’s waiting list. Now he is saying that there has been an increase and therefore the health system is failing for that reason. The member has to get his lines straight.
Could he explain his comments yesterday that patients culled from a waiting list and sent back to a general practitioner are, in fact, better off?
Hon Dr Nick SmithWell then, let me quote the speech that the member has misquoted. I did say that it is better for a person to be sent back to a general practitioner than to be left on a waiting list and receive no attention, no review, no follow-up, and no reassessment. That is why the National Government got rid of the old waiting list system and introduced the booking system.
Why should New Zealanders believe him when he says that patients are better off by being sent back to their general practitioner, when the respected chairman of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons says there is a crisis and the numbers are getting worse, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says the Government has no effective strategy to deal with waiting lists, and the lobby group Health Cuts Hurt says the Minister is offering nothing to reassure the thousands of patients who are languishing on his waiting lists?
I am delighted that the National Party, as the other main party in this House, joins Labour in wanting to have a better-still health system. However, I find it bewildering that only 8 months ago we went to the polls in this country, fighting over whether we should have an $11 billion tax cut courtesy of the National Party, which thankfully lost the election, because an $11 billion tax cut over 3 years would make health cuts deep and ugly.
What does it mean that the land information portfolio has now been taken off the Minister, and is that not a sign that even the Prime Minister can see that Pete Hodgson is doing to the health system what he did to the Kyoto Protocol?
What that reflects is the fact that within this Cabinet there are many, many multiskilled members and we can manage any number of portfolios without a great deal of difficulty.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
Would the Minister accept that the symptoms of “crisis syndrome” that he described yesterday include lashing out at doctors who dare to question Labour policy, frenzied attacks on Opposition spokespeople, criticism of the media, and loss of personal control during question time, and that the best cure is to remove himself from his unbearable portfolio responsibility; and would he further agree that being criticised by him on matters of health-care policy is a bit like being called a halfwit by the village idiot?