7. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Has he seen this week’s reports that Auckland cancer services are struggling to cope with patient demand, that South Auckland anaesthetists are threatening to work to rule due to shortages, and that local emergency department specialists warn hospital overcrowding may cost lives; and what action has he taken to deal with these crises in the public health system?
Is it not a sign of yet another crisis in the New Zealand public health system when cancer patients from Auckland are yet again being sent to Australia for treatment because the region’s radiation therapy waiting times have blown out yet again—a situation that his colleague Annette King described 3 years ago as a scandal?
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR Link to this
It is not a situation that any Minister of Health would like to see. We are aware that there has been a blowout. There have been several resignations in the last few weeks. Some of the radiologists who have resigned have gone to the private sector. The resignations have put additional pressure on the system. The important thing is that the district health board gets treatment to those patients when they need it, whether it be at Waikato Hospital or in Australia, and that is what the district health board is focused on.
Louisa WallKia ora, Madam Speaker. Tēnā koutou katoa. What progress has been made in reducing the incidence of cancer across the country?
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR Link to this
We have taken many significant actions and moves. We have begun three community cancer pilots to support Māori and people in rural areas affected by cancer. We have established a new graduate programme for radiation therapists. We have funded additional advanced training positions in medical physics. We have funded five new linear accelerators for radiation treatment in the last year alone. We have improved the performance of radiation treatment, ensuring that 97 percent of people receive radiation treatment within 8 weeks of their first specialist assessment. Much is being done in this very challenging area of health care.
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR Link to this
The realities are that we have in some areas, such as South Auckland, an increasing population; we have an ageing population, as well; and we have better methods of identifying cancers earlier, and that does put pressure on treatment systems. But we are committed, through training more specialists and through attracting more people to work for the district health boards, to providing better cancer treatment for each and every New Zealander who needs it.
Is it not a sign of yet another crisis in the New Zealand public health service, when Middlemore Hospital, in South Auckland, is short of anaesthetists by a third—20 anaesthetists—the shortage is such that it is on the verge of losing its accreditation for training anaesthetists, and this Government has known for quite some time about the workforce crisis in South Auckland affecting that profession?
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR Link to this
The member is wrong in his assertion about the shortage of specialists there. We are aware that there is currently a shortage of four fulltime-equivalent anaesthetists in the Counties Manukau District Health Board, and the district health board is working to address that problem. The member exaggerates wildly the shortage in that area. It is not one-third; it is four fulltime-equivalent anaesthetists.
Is it not another sign of yet another crisis in the New Zealand public health service, when the leading emergency department position in New Zealand is warning the country that as many people are being killed by overcrowding in our emergency departments as are being killed on the roads, and when this Government has known for month after month that New Zealand hospital emergency departments are crammed to overcrowding and lives are being put at risk because of the hopeless time lines that this Government is forcing on our hospitals?
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR Link to this
I do not accept the outrageous assertions that the member made. Many factors contribute to the pressure on emergency departments. The Government has been undertaking the largest hospital-rebuilding programme ever in New Zealand’s history, and we have dramatically reduced the cost of going to a general practitioner. Those two factors alone are helping our health system. We accept that there can be improvements, particularly in emergency departments, and I know that the Minister of Health is looking into that.
I seek to table a pledge from the Rt Hon Helen Clark that no one would miss out on a hospital bed if he or she needed it.
Madam SPEAKER