10. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does she stand by her statement, “What I’m satisfied by is that PlunketLine, in terms of calls picked up, was not providing a good service”; if so, why?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) Link to this
Yes. As I told the member last week, the rate of calls not picked up by Plunket was high, at 87.3 percent in the year ended December 2005. Plunket is not on track to answer the number of calls specified in its subcontract with McKesson.
Why should the public believe a single word this Prime Minister says, when the Ministry of Health’s Dr Pat Tuohy has publicly stated that PlunketLine did not lose its contract because of the unanswered call rate; what is the real reason that her Government has abandoned PlunketLine?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I am sure the Minister of Health would be quite happy to give the member a briefing on the very thorough process that was followed to evaluate the PlunketLine contract. I understand that one of the critical issues is that the technology and processes that Plunket tendered on the basis of were not considered to be up to scratch.
Why should New Zealanders believe a single word this Prime Minister says about PlunketLine; who is right: the highly respected iconic Plunket service, which has been caring for New Zealand kids for 100 years and which refutes the Prime Minister’s claim that PlunketLine was offered additional funding, or the Prime Minister, who in the previous answer has just changed her story yet again?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
The iconic service referred to, which was not supported by National when it was in Government, has indeed said that it was offered more money but that it did not like the conditions. Perhaps the member would like to know what the conditions were. They were conditions like PlunketLine being asked to add a recorded message along the lines of: “All our nurses are busy at present. Please hold the line if you would like to speak to a Plunket nurse, or press now if your child is unwell and you would like to speak to a Healthline nurse.” That would have meant that PlunketLine nurses would be in a better position to answer the volume of Well Child calls, as per their speciality and the service agreement.
Is the Prime Minister the same Helen Clark who pledged: “Getting a good start [in life] is crucial to later success. My government will expand early intervention programmes. The first step will be to fund the Plunket Line service on a 24 hour a day, seven days a week basis.”, or is there a different Helen Clark who said that?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
Yes, and we did fund a Well Child service 24 hours a day, and we will continue to fund a Well Child service 24 hours a day—something that would not be possible if the National Party was trying to fund $11 billion of tax cuts.
Is she the same Helen Clark who said this is “a symptom of the crisis in health in this country. What could be more dreadful than to see the most basic service in this country, well-child health-care, abandoned by a Government that cares more about competition amongst services than continuity of quality Plunket services in our community?”
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I hardly see the funding of Plunket to the tune of about $34 million a year from the Government as abandoning anything. Our Government, unlike the National Party, is committed to funding a 24-hour Well Child service, and we will do so.
Jo GoodhewCan the Prime Minister remember making this scathing statement about Jenny Shipley: “We have a Prime Minister who claims to be passionate about making life better for mothers and families but stands by while the Plunket telephone line collapses.”; and does she not realise the irony that those words now describe her?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
Mrs Shipley and the National Party were not prepared to fund a 24-hour Well Child health service. The National Party now says that irrespective of the quality of the service, money should be spent on Plunket’s specific one rather than funding one that can do the job.
I seek leave to table two documents. One is a press release from the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, stating: “Plunket refutes offer of funding for PlunketLine”.
Madam SPEAKERThe second is a document that shows that Plunket has cancelled the launch of its centenary celebrations, at which the Prime Minister was to have been the guest speaker next week.