10. Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Does he stand by his statement “No one will be left unsafe or unable to manage on their own as a result of the changes”?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
Yes, that is what I have been advised by district health boards in relation to home support. District health boards are spending more on home support this year than they did last year, and they will spend more again next year. Around 75,000 people receive home support at some time each year, and around 15,000 people come on, and 15,000 people go off, home support each year. I ask any member with concerns about any person being left vulnerable to let me know about that.
Can he guarantee that people with mental illness in the Wellington region will be safe when Capital and Coast District Health Board, a board that is already sending staff home to save money, reports in its board minutes that the only option to make savings in mental health is to cut the number of staff?
I am not aware of that report in the board’s papers. What I am aware of is that Capital and Coast District Health Board is getting an extra $24 million this year, and that we will be spending an extra $174 million on mental health in the next 4 years.
Mr SPEAKERCan he guarantee that people with mental illness in Golden Bay will be safe when, according to the Nelson Evening Mail, the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board has cut $1.5 million from mental health services in its district, and Te Whare Mahana, the only mental health service in Golden Bay, has had 30 percent of its funding cut?
I am aware of the Golden Bay situation, which apparently has 60 clients and about 30 staff working on a part-time or a full-time basis. In the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board area, I can advise the member that that board has received an increase in funding for next year, totalling a very significant $10 million.
Dr Paul HutchisonI have seen reports that members of the Opposition have criticised aspects of the way that district health boards are managing home support. That includes a criticism that some recipients’ needs have been assessed by telephone. In fact, this system of assessment was trialled in 2004, approved in 2007, and funded in 2008 by the previous Labour Government. I am advised that the process was started under the specific oversight of the then Associate Minister of Health, one Ruth Dyson. Further, in terms of ongoing reassessment, at the same time that the previous Government brought in telephone assessments, it changed or stopped home support for hundreds of people, including around 300 in Wanganui and hundreds more in Otago-Southland.
Can he guarantee that patients in Nelson Hospital will be safe, given reports in the Nelson Evening Mail that nurses at the hospital told Golden Bay resident Victoria Davis that they were too busy to give her mother the care that she needed in hospital and suggested that she hire a private nurse?
In my view, that would be unacceptable behaviour. The district health board did not know that a private nurse was being paid. It would not approve of that, and it is not aware of that happening before.
Can he guarantee that people in Wanganui will be safe, given the statement today by his former colleague Mayor Michael Laws—
Hon Trevor Mallard—friend and colleague—that his requirements of Whanganui District Health Board “represent the gravest danger to health services in the region, and a threat to Wanganui’s quality of life”?
I seek leave to table Mayor Michael Laws’ statement of 1.54 p.m. today, which states: “There will be job cuts and there will be service cuts”—