12. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Can he confirm that elective surgical discharges since district health boards began have been 108,541 in 2001, 105,721 in 2002, 102,942 in 2003, 106,575 in 2004, 106,583 in 2005, 107,923 in 2006, and 114,098 in 2007?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) Link to this
Yes, I can confirm that the number of people receiving elective surgical treatment has increased significantly under this Labour-led Government, alongside increases in acute procedures, capital investment, and workforce investment, and despite changes to clinical practice and definitions.
Why is it that after 7 years and $5.5 billion of extra funding, the amount of elective surgery in New Zealand has not kept up with our country’s population growth, meaning that sick people have less chance of getting the surgery they need under Labour than they had previously?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
As I indicated in my primary answer, much of the significant investment made by this Government has gone into other areas of health care, such as capital investment, district health board budgets, workforce investment, and a whole raft of improvements to the system.
Jill PettisWhat steps has the Labour-led Government recently taken to increase the number of elective surgical operations actually undertaken?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
This year’s Budget allocated an extra $160 million, with that funding providing an additional 5,000 elective surgical discharges a year. The money will also give approximately 24,000 extra patients first specialist appointments, diagnostic testing, and community-based procedures. New Zealanders know that they can trust Labour to deliver on health—unlike the National Party, which apparently has a phone book - sized policy agenda that it is hiding from the public.
Can the Minister confirm that under Labour’s district health board model, from 2001 to 2006 elective surgical discharges actually fell, and despite the panicked injection of $60 million by Pete Hodgson, elective surgical discharges under Labour have still not even caught up with New Zealand’s population growth?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
What I can confirm is that the proportion of the total adult population getting elective surgical discharges in 2001-02 was 199 per 10,000, and in 2006-07 that had grown to 207 per 10,000.
How does he respond to a Dunedin ear, nose, and throat surgeon who says, in his words: “Many working-class people are struggling to borrow money to have operations privately, because they know they would never get seen in the public system.”, and is that how Labour treats the people whom it says it represents?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
The feedback I get from my colleagues who actually hold clinics with working-class people is that they have not had cases of people fronting up to complain about a lack of hip operations, knee operations, or cataract operations in many a long month or year. That stands in vast contrast to the queues of crippled Kiwis who were lining up under that member’s maladministration.
If everything is so good, why do his own officials say that patients have to be more sick in order to qualify for surgery, and is that not more evidence of Labour using yesterday’s solutions for tomorrow’s problems?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
I would be happy to give that member a very specific answer to that question if he had asked anything specific in the question, but if he wants to trot out pure rhetoric and vague references there is not much I can say.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
Would the Minister explain why fewer operations were performed in the Waitemata District Health Board area in 2007 than in 2001, and given that the district health board population has increased by 14 percent over 6 years, is he concerned that sick working-class people in Waitematā now have less chance of getting surgery than they had previously?
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
How nice it is to hear from the next National spokesperson on health. What I know from visiting that member’s district health board is that there has been a considerable capital investment programme in Waitematā that has seen the addition of new bed space, new wards and staffing, new rosters, vacancy rates going down, and operation numbers going up. The feedback that I get from the people of the Waitematā area is that they are very happy, in general, with their district health board.
I seek leave to table a schedule that shows that per head of population New Zealanders are getting less access to vitally needed surgery than previously.
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE Link to this
I seek leave to table a series of data summarising progress with elective surgery under this Government.