7. MARYAN STREET (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What progress has been made on constructing new public hospitals around New Zealand?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
A lot of progress has been made. On Thursday the Prime Minister opened the new Wairarapa Hospital in Masterton. This is just the latest opening in what has been the most ambitious hospital building programme in living memory, with new hospitals being built from Kaitāia to Invercargill under this Labour-led Government.
How does the Government’s record of building public hospitals compare with that of previous Governments?
The Labour-led Government’s historic investment in upgrading hospitals and opening new facilities stands in stark contrast to the previous National Government’s programme of closures and under-investment in New Zealand’s hospitals. Between 1991 and 1999 the National Government closed 38 public hospitals. The Labour-led Government has built, or approved for construction or extension, 22 hospitals.
Jo GoodhewWhat is the point of showing off about those new hospital buildings when the Government has district health boards culling patients, who are in pain, to stop them from getting inside those brand-new doors?
One of the reasons for building or extending 22 hospitals in the course of the last 6½ years was to further increase surgery—for example, a 24 percent increase in hip replacements, a 52 percent increase in knee replacements, and a 75 percent increase in angioplasties, which is not the sort of thing one can do if one is closing hospitals right, left, and centre.
Rt Hon Winston Peters Link to this
Would the Minister be prepared to correct the answer he gave in respect of hospital closures under National when he said that 38 were closed between 1991 and 1999, when for 2 years there were no hospital closures, in 1997 and 1998, and when, in fact, we opened two hospitals—a mental health unit and a heart unit in Canterbury—and would he be prepared to make those facts public so that no one is under a misapprehension as to which party was responsible in that coalition and which one was not?
I do not know in which part of the 1990s most of the hospital closures occurred, but I take the member at his word and I do so without any sense of surprise.
Hone HarawiraWhy is the Government boasting about spending millions and millions of dollars building new hospitals around New Zealand, while, at the same time, it is engaged in a programme of shutting down perfectly good, well-run, and well-respected hospitals, particularly in rural areas like Kaitāia, and turning them into day clinics, against the wishes of the local population and the local medical fraternity?
I am sorry the member is so sadly mistaken about an area that he purports to represent. There is a new hospital in Kaitāia. It is worth $9.3 million, and the maternity part of it was opened last week.
Hon Tony RyallI seek leave to table the very long list of public hospitals closed by Helen Clark as Minister of Health.
Madam SPEAKERI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I point out to the Minister that a new hospital has not been opened in Kaitāia—
That is not a point of order; it is a point of information. If you wish to ask another supplementary question, you may.