Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations,and State Enterprises — Canterbury District Health Board (continued)

In speaking to this review of the Canterbury District Health Board for the 2005-06 financial year, I think that when one is looking at this district health board it embodies a lot of the serious issues that are confronting the Government and, by implication, the public, in the management of the health service. A big problem we have in the health service currently is the issue of quality.

This district health board has had a lot of publicity in relation to the case of a young man—a 25-year-old—who turned up at accident and emergency in Christchurch with severe back pain. He was processed through accident and emergency, he saw multiple doctors, and he was turned away from that hospital only to go home and die in agony from a spinal infection, just a few short hours later. That, obviously, is a tragedy for that young man, his partner, and the family. It should never have happened. But what it does highlight is an issue we have of systemic failure throughout the health service.

The incident involving the Canterbury District Health Board, I regret to say, is not isolated. We have had numerous examples of other tragedies occurring throughout the health system. In fact, it is hitting the headlines on a daily basis. The Associate Minister of Health, Jim Anderton, was telling the House at question time today that the New Zealand health system is better than ever. Well, it is really hard to justify that statement, and I am looking forward to the Minister taking a call shortly, before announcing his retirement, to tell us how he can say that the New Zealand health system is better than ever.

We have a system that is confronted by innumerable challenges that this Government is clearly not up to the task of solving. If one looks at the industrial relations situation in the New Zealand health system at the moment, we have an unprecedented situation whereby the senior salaried doctors—the senior specialists—have announced today that they are calling a special stopwork meeting because they feel the situation in our hospitals has got so bad that they can no longer continue working under this regime. That is unprecedented. But it is not the only industrial action we have. We have had radiographers go on strike, we have had three strikes by laboratory workers this year, and we have a climate of continuous industrial unrest that the Minister of Health has been powerless to stop.

One could say that on the one hand industrial relations in the health sector is an issue in itself, but the problem is the flow-on effects to patient care. When one has a laboratory workers dispute, which the Minister is incapable of solving—that he is incompetent to solve—it means that fewer people are getting the operations they need. So when there is a delay there are no X-rays, there are no laboratory services, and the hospital pretty much comes to a stop. People do not get their surgery. That surgery obviously is delayed and it bumps people further down the list. Basically what happens is that the quality of care that New Zealand has come to expect is just not there any more.

When one goes back to the tragic tale of the young man who passed away after his assessment at Christchurch Hospital, one can see that there are many interwoven strands that lead to such a situation. There are laboratory workers on strike, short-staffing of doctors, too many doctors who are not familiar with our health system and culture in New Zealand, and underpaid nurses. There is an industrial climate and a hospital climate in which people are unhappy to be working, patients are consequently getting a lower standard of care, and this basically affects the outcomes for the patient.

It brings us to the issue of accountability. What we are seeing with this Government is a total dearth of accountability, and it is across all sectors, not just in health. We had the Minister of Justice stand up here today and his version of accountability in terms of dealing with gang problems in New Zealand was to say that we are passing legislation such as the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act—that is how we are going to deal with the gang problem. I think this is indicative of an administration that, first, does not want to take accountability, but, second, does not have the answers to the problems that are confronting New Zealanders. There is no question that health is one of those areas.

Report noted.

Capital and Coast District Health Board