8. GORDON COPELAND (Independent) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Is the Government prepared to increase funding so that Plunket can provide a full service involving house calls on all new babies and their mothers for the first year of a baby’s life, with clinical visits thereafter?
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Associate Minister of Health) Link to this
Government funding for Well Child services has been increasing for a number of years now. Each year, this Government spends $41.4 million on Well Child services to mothers and babies. The funding for the Plunket provision of Well Child services has increased by close to 91 percent over the past 7 years, to reach close to $36 million each year. The Government has committed a further $23.4 million over the next 4 years for the B4 School health check.
Does the Minister accept that instead of pouring millions of dollars into a variety of attempts to rein in child abuse, it would be better to fund a comprehensive Plunket service with in-the-house, face-to-face contact; and surely that is much to be preferred to, for example, one of his colleague’s exhortations that New Zealanders need to “look over their neighbours’ fences”, as if child abuse normally occurs outside?
If the member is asking about face-to-face child visits by Plunket, I can inform him that Plunket is funded to provide additional visits to all first-time parents it enrols, which are an additional four face-to-face visits per first-time parent, and to other families assessed as having high needs. I think that the lowering of infant mortality and the extending of New Zealanders’ life expectancy are both very good signs that this Government has a very clear hand and a strategic direction that it is following, to the benefit of all New Zealanders.
Sue MoroneyYes. As I indicated earlier to the House, New Zealand’s infant mortality rates are steadily declining, down from 7.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1997 to 5.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in March 2007. As I say, that is an improvement of 28 percent in recent years, and I would have thought that most representative Parliaments in the world would be very cheerful at that sort of news. I am waiting to hear the cheers from the other side of the House.
Does the Minister have an appreciation of both the huge importation of knowledge and the confidence boost that new mums receive from regular Plunket visits, not to mention the multiple health benefits that result from Plunket’s Well Child contacts; if so, can he think of a better return to our society than that flowing from the reinstatement of a comprehensive, year-long home Plunket service?