5. Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What announcements has the Government made in relation to increasing cooperation between the public and private health sectors?
Hon PETER DUNNE (Associate Minister of Health) Link to this
I am happy to report that yesterday the Government announced that it had amended the protocols for district health boards to allow them to make better and smarter use of private hospitals, so they can take pressure off waiting lists and get better value for money. Specifically, the providers’ selection protocols have been amended to better enable district health boards to enter into longer-term arrangements with private hospitals to complement their own services. The district health boards will be able to contract with private providers to deliver a set number of procedures over several years to complement their own delivery, and to negotiate a better price and more operations. These changes reflect both the National Party’s election policy and the provisions of its confidence and supply agreement with United Future, which ensure greater utilisation of private hospital capacity to reduce elective surgery waiting lists.
What has the Government done to ensure that viability of the public health system is not weakened through smarter use of the private sector?
A couple of things are important to note in this regard. Firstly, a special protocol is being developed that says that district health boards are free to use the private sector to complement their own service delivery, provided the long-term viability of their resource and delivery is not undermined. Secondly, the Government has already announced that it will build 20 extra dedicated elective surgery operating theatres, and train extra nurses and doctors in the public sector to staff them.
Hon Ruth DysonDoes the Minister agree with comments from Jeremy Cooper, an anaesthetist at Auckland Hospital, that senior staff in the public hospital build the system, teach, and look after emergencies, and see their interesting work, and the work which has remuneration attached to it, go to the private system; if so, what is the Minister going to do about it?
It is worth putting into context the number of total procedures that are carried out at the present time. Between 2005-06 and 2007-08, an additional 12,000 elective surgery procedures over and above the baseline were carried out. Under the previous Government, over half of those were already carried out in the private sector. The argument that the member is referring to simply does not hold water.
Why did the Government consider it necessary to increase the cooperation between the public and private health sectors?
The simple reason is that, although there has been a significant increase in health expenditure—in fact, it has doubled in the last decade—we still have rising waiting lists, massive waiting lists in the public sector, underutilised capacity in the private sector, and a lot of New Zealanders who are desperate to get operations. This is a step towards fulfilling that objective and making the system work more effectively so that the patients of New Zealand become the winners, for a change.