6. Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What expectations does he have for district health boards to fund patient travel costs?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
The Government expects district health boards to fund patient travel costs according to the travel policies that have been in place under the previous Government, and which this Government is continuing.
Does he expect to make more inaccurate announcements as he did on 29 March when he said: “The amount that patients can claim under the scheme hasn’t been reviewed for more than 20 years,”; or had he forgotten that an additional $36 million was added to that very fund after the last review 4 years ago?
It is quite clear that the National Government has enjoyed a considerable amount of positive support from New Zealanders for its announcements on improving the National Travel Assistance Policy.
Will the Minister demand a Health Committee inquiry, as he did when the Capital and Coast District Health Board’s paediatric oncology service was last under threat and children and their families had to travel for their treatment; or will he concede that his noise then was nothing about children and their families, but purely political?
Because the current paediatric oncologists are in place until August there is a period of time for a more durable solution to the ongoing challenge of providing a full range of paediatric oncology services at Wellington Hospital to be found.
Nicky WagnerWhat changes, if any, have been made to the National Travel Assistance Policy under the new Government?
The announcement from the Government that there will be increases to the policy has been long-awaited. There will be a 40 percent increase in the mileage contribution, which will go from 20c to 28c per kilometre, and we are increasing the overnight support up to $100 per night. This is the first increase in a number of years and it brings the rest of the country up to the rate paid in Auckland.
How can the Minister justify his decision to allow the MidCentral District Health Board to cancel the clinical services and mobile bus, and how can he justify the now required 100 kilometre journey on a substandard road, with no travel assistance, to the good people of Dannevirke? What happened to “no cuts in front-line services”?
I am advised that the reason why changes have been made to the Dannevirke service is to improve the number of patients who can get a first specialist assessment. We know that despite the population of New Zealand growing by 10 percent in the last 9 years, the number of first specialist assessments hardly grew. But I can also say that I have been advised by the chief executive of the MidCentral District Health Board that 30-plus services are still being provided in Dannevirke.
There is no doubt, when we look at the situation of the paediatric oncology service here in Wellington, that the new Government has inherited a large number of vulnerable services mainly because of the health workforce crisis that has been ignored for some years. The new Government has asked district health boards to identify those vulnerable services and work regionally and nationally to ensure that front-line services can be improved.