12. Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What reports has he received on North Shore Hospital’s emergency department?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
I have received reports that North Shore Hospital, including its emergency department, has insufficient capacity to meet its growth in acute or emergency services. The Waitemata District Health Board has reported that core acute-service patient numbers have increased by a huge 42 percent in just 3 years. The report makes it clear that, over the last year and a half, urgent admissions have exceeded the hospital’s ability to care for its patients, with patients left languishing on stretchers in open spaces in the emergency department.
Today I can announce that the new Government has approved Waitemata District Health Board’s business case for the so-called Lakeview extension at North Shore Hospital. The business case sought approval for the $48 million project to build a much-needed extension to the North Shore Hospital emergency department and the hospital’s acute medical capacity. The approval of that case will now allow the Waitemata District Health Board to progress to final design work and ministerial approval. Construction is expected to begin at the end of this year.
Hon Ruth DysonWhat increase in the number of admissions to the North Shore Hospital’s emergency department, and, in fact, the emergency department of every hospital in the country, does the Minister expect as a result of his decision to allow district health boards to hold on to the 3 percent future funding track money on 1 July this year, rather than passing it on to community-based health providers?
This Government has inherited a public health service with a very dire financial situation, and this Government is determined to ensure that New Zealanders get improved service from emergency departments. We think it is unacceptable that patients were languishing under fluorescent lights in the emergency department at North Shore Hospital for days on end. That problem cannot be fixed overnight, but this Government is determined to fix it.
Mr SPEAKERI must say it is not helpful when the Minister starts his answer by talking about the questioner’s party or what this Government might do and making a statement instead of actually responding to the question. I invite the member to repeat her question.
My question was quite specific, and I am pleased to repeat it. What increase in the number of admissions to the North Shore Hospital’s emergency department, and to the emergency department of every hospital in the country, does the Minister expect as a result of his decision to allow district health boards to hold on to the 3 percent future funding track money from 1 July this year, rather than passing it on to health providers in the community?
Many health providers in the community will be receiving funding increases associated with the future funding track.
The announcement includes a major enhancement of bed capacity, and a new assessment and diagnostic unit. It includes 26 extra cubicles in the emergency department; the reintroduction of an admissions planning unit, including 19 extra beds, at North Shore Hospital, which is essential to address the flow of patients between the emergency department and the hospital; and 48 extra medical in-patient beds—a total of 93 more beds for North Shore Hospital, so that we can begin to address the problems we have inherited at that hospital.
What criteria has the Minister allowed district health boards to use in determining that some health providers in the community and voluntary sector will not have the 3 percent future funding track money passed on to them, and others will? What criteria will make the difference?
Those criteria are the same that one would have expected under the previous Government. The district health boards have the responsibility to manage their resources effectively. This Government will be giving the district health boards more money in the Budget. There will be record budgets for the district health boards, and that will give them the responsibility to manage the needs of their patients.
What increase in the number of admissions to the emergency departments of South Canterbury hospitals does the Minister expect, on the basis of his decision to allow the South Canterbury District Health Board to cut home support services to anyone receiving services of fewer than 2 hours a week?
The difficulty with that question was that the primary question was very specifically in respect of North Shore Hospital’s emergency department.
The Minister’s answers can expand questions, but, just because I have allowed a supplementary question that does that, the options do not just keep expanding.
Hon Darren Hughes Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The last answer that the Minister gave referred to district health board budgets—the budgets of district health boards across the country. He was quoting and trumpeting that he was, supposedly, increasing those budgets. The member is now asking a question about a specific district health board. This line of questioning is because of the Minister’s answers.
The South Canterbury District Health Board will receive increased funding in this year’s Budget. Is this member standing up in the House and saying that no district health board, under Labour, ever responded to the requirements of its community? The fact is that this Government is increasing resources for those district health boards. She should be worried about that, because there will be improved services for New Zealanders.
So how does the Minister’s decision to allow the South Canterbury District Health Board to cut services align with his promise to New Zealanders that there would be no health cuts to front-line services; and what else is a home support service of only 2 hours a week to a frail, elderly person, who will now get nothing, other than a front-line service?
Those services are the responsibility of the South Canterbury District Health Board. How shameful of that member to fake some sort of concern about those older people in South Canterbury when she allowed older people on the North Shore to languish under fluorescent light bulbs in the local emergency department. When the report from the Health and Disability Commissioner comes out, I will be interested to hear what she has to say.
Can the Minister confirm that despite his attempt at self-promotion through patsy questions, there was no emergency department at all at North Shore Hospital until 2001, when Annette King was the Minister of Health, and that, in fact, there was no hospital on the North Shore before Stuart Nash’s great-grandfather Walter Nash built it in 1958—that both were built under Labour Governments?