12. Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What recent reports, if any, has he received regarding problems with consultation undertaken by district health boards and Crown entities under his jurisdiction?
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Acting Minister of Health) Link to this
The Minister receives many reports on consultation. Consultation requirements are laid out in legislation and policy. District health boards and Crown entities are expected to comply with those requirements. A number of parties, as the member knows, are currently testing or considering testing that issue.
Will the Minister explain why his inability to step in to ensure proper consultation has now resulted in an unprecedented number of legal actions, such as the appeal of the Labtests Auckland case, the judicial review of the Waikato and Bay of Plenty district health boards’ community laboratory contracts, the proposed legal action by pharmacists against the district health board pharmacy contract, and now the possible judicial review of Pharmac’s decision to fund 9 weeks of Herceptin?
All those actions seem to me to be within the framework of the rule of law and democratic action that people are entitled to take in this country. I ask whether the member would have us stop them doing that.
Why is it that the district health boards, during the pharmacy contract consultation process, treated the pharmacists so appallingly, by stalling, threatening, imposing unilateral conditions, and completely failing to consult; and can he understand why those first-line health professionals feel as though they have been backed into a corner?
All I can say is that as a constituency member I know there has been considerable consultation on the pharmacy contract. The fact that some pharmacists are not happy with it does not surprise me—that goes with the territory—but in the end these are matters that have to be worked out by the district health boards themselves, because our framework requires that they have the authority and delegated responsibility for doing so.
Does the Minister believe that the Pharmac board entered into the Herceptin consultation process with an open mind, when half the Pharmac board members are either board members or chairs of district health boards, another is involved in district health board funding, and the observer member is the chief executive of a district heath board; and when, because of the board make-up, the final decision was biased and based purely on budgets and not the scientific evidence?
I am advised that Pharmac consulted on that issue and received 250 submissions. If the member has any specific information on any bias or leanings by members of Pharmac that she believes are outside of the framework required of independent agency members like the members of Pharmac, she should supply them to the Minister or to me, and I will see that they are looked at.
Can the Minister see that he has failed miserably as Minister of Health and that the unprecedented number of legal actions is a resounding vote of no confidence in his appalling, arrogant management; and instead of using taxpayers’ money to pay massive legal bills, would it not be better to use that money to improve the health of the people who need it?
What I can say, after many years in this Parliament, is that our health system is inordinately better than it used to be, and that basically every single member of this House who has to deal with health matters knows that. At a primary, secondary, and tertiary level we are doing much, much better than ever before. If the member wants chapter and verse on that, she should ask me a written question and I will give her a book on it.
I seek leave of the House to table two documents. The first is a letter dated 24 April from Chen Palmer and Partners to the chief executive officer of the Otago District Health Board, outlining the concerns the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand has with the pharmacy services agreement.
The second is the Pharmac board’s interest register dated March 2007, indicating that half of the Pharmac board members are either board members or chairs of district health boards.