8. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
How many patients have died while on the waiting list for heart surgery at Wellington Hospital in the past 3 years?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) Link to this
It is a priority for this Government, and for all New Zealanders, to ensure that hospital quality and safety are amongst the best in the world. OECD data shows that we have the best 30-day survival rate for hospital treatment of heart attack patients. However, it is a sad fact that around 18,000 people in New Zealand died during the past 3 years of heart disease. I am advised by the Capital and Coast District Health Board that, of these, 10 were on the waiting list for cardiac surgery there.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
It has been alleged, to my knowledge, that three deaths were preventable. I have asked the Director-General of Health to mount an urgent independent investigation to ascertain the veracity of those claims.
Hon Marian HobbsHon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
Although the district health boards remain primarily responsible for clinical service delivery, the Prime Minister underscored yesterday that the Government is making improvement in quality and safety a top priority. To this end, a national Quality Improvement Committee has been set up. I have moved quickly to link part of the district health board budgets to progress on this agenda, and to formally convey this policy, through my annual letter of expectations, to all district health boards.
Why, despite the spending of billions of extra dollars on health, has the heart surgery waiting list at Wellington Hospital trebled since Labour came into office, while the amount of heart surgery done there has flat-lined in recent years?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
Under this Government, some 4,500 new nurses and some 2,000 new doctors have been brought into our health system. I am advised that the Capital and Coast District Health Board was not funding-constrained in its elective surgery, and we are working with it urgently to identify and resolve other bottlenecks.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
As well as appointing a new chair and Crown monitor, I asked the Director-General of Health to set up an independent review of the three alleged cardiac cases. In addition, I have asked for an urgent recovery plan to reduce the waiting list. The Capital and Coast District Health Board is working on this, and I am advised that it will result in an increase in elective cardiac surgery throughput of approximately 50 percent, cutting the waiting list by at least half by November 2008. I will continue to push for the earliest possible reduction.
Heather RoyDoes the Minister stand by his Government’s solemn promise to those Kiwis desperately waiting for heart surgery that if they have 50 points and certainty of treatment, they will receive life-saving heart surgery within 6 months; and whose fault is it that the Capital and Coast District Health Board has failed to honour this promise for 70 patients, whose lives have been put at risk, with the result of, indeed, at least three needless deaths?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
It would appear that the member has attempted to prejudge the outcome of an independent inquiry; I will not do that. The policy of a maximum of 6 months on a waiting list remains in place. I share the member’s concern that in some district health board areas people are waiting for longer than that. That is not acceptable to this Government.
Rodney HideI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. The specific question was—and this is important for accountability—who is responsible for honouring that promise. The Minister has accepted that in other places, too, the promise has not been kept. Well, whose fault is it?
Madam SPEAKERI raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. If the Minister has answered that part, could you share with the House who is responsible?
Can the Minister explain why in some weeks more cardiac operations at Wellington Hospital are cancelled than are actually done; and is this the first-class health service that Helen Clark, ironically, promised in the House yesterday?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
It is the responsibility of the district health boards to manage individual clinical services. However, the Government takes a very strong interest in the overall performance of the district health boards, and I have already signalled that I am not satisfied with the performance in this regard.
What would the Minister say to the family of the late Mrs Beverley O’Neill of Napier, a victim of this Government’s hospital waiting list, and whose son said of his mother: “Mum was of the old school. She believed in the system … You work, you pay your taxes for all the right reasons. And the one time she needed the system”— I say to the Prime Minister —“it let her down.”?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
I would say to that family what I would say to any family who has lost a loved one through any such circumstance, and that is that the hearts of all members of this House go out to them. It is not acceptable to this Government if people die preventable deaths while waiting for surgery. But, again, I would caution the member not to leap to conclusions before receiving the results of an independent, rigorous inquiry.
In light of the Minister’s statement to the House on 7 November last year that he is “running this show”, does he accept any responsibility for these needless deaths, does the Government stand by its solemn promise that every patient who is given certainty will receive surgery within 6 months, and can he give a categorical assurance that under his watch no New Zealander will die because he or she has had to wait longer than the 6-month minimum that his Government has said it is committed to?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
It would make as much sense to define a successful ministry as being a situation where nobody dies as it would be to describe a Capital and Coast District Health Board hospital as a killer hospital.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Just out of interest, was that answer addressing the question?
I think it did, but I can understand why some members found it a little subtle. Would the Minister please amplify it.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
No Minister can prevent people from dying of disease—eighteen thousand people died of cardiac disease in New Zealand in the last 3 years. That member does not serve herself or this House well by denigrating the efforts of clinicians doing their best to prevent deaths.
Does the Minister see any irony in that, after 8½ years in office, this Labour Government is not prepared to accept the fact that, despite it pouring billions of dollars into the health service, waiting lists for heart surgery at Wellington Hospital have trebled, and fewer people are getting operations; and will the Minister tell the House how many more heart patients will die while on the waiting list at Wellington Hospital, while his report is being prepared?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
Regrettably, it may be that the member did not hear my answer to an earlier supplementary question, when I confirmed to him that the Capital and Coast District Health Board was not funding-constrained in respect of its cardiac waiting list. The Government has provided the funds. We are working with the Capital and Coast District Health Board to remove the bottlenecks.