Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Health

The health portfolio is in trouble. It is in serious trouble. After 6 years of Tony Ryall’s stewardship, 6 years of his decision making, and 6 years of his policies, he is still blaming the previous Government—and me in particular, 9 years after I finished being the Minister of Health.

💬 Hon Anne Tolley: You made such a mess of it.

What I want to say to that member opposite, who never contributes anything in health, is that the blame game is part of his arsenal for managing health. I want to add to that arsenal the bullying of chairs and chief executive officers, of staff and NGOs; controlling the Official Information Act requests that go out and the information that the Ministry of Health is allowed to put out; and covering up, because I believe that the Minister of Health knew a lot more about the Southern District Health Board and South Link Health money than he is letting on.

I would give him, under national standards, an Achieved for politics and a Not Achieved for making a better health system for New Zealanders, because, in fact, he has managed to create a climate of fear in the health system of New Zealand. If you want to look at some of those who work at the coal front who had something to say about this, I suggest that you read the statement from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists—in other words, our doctors—which put out a statement last week when it heard that Mr Ryall is leaving. It said that he is a Minister of Health with a “mixed record”, and that it has been “a tale of two health ministers”. The statement said: “Tony Ryall’s performance … got off to a good start but after a couple of years his performance became increasingly disappointing,”. The statement said that he abandoned “his commitment to address the vulnerability of the hospital specialist workforce”—our specialist doctors in our hospitals—by using “dodgy misleading data.” He turned “a blind eye to public hospitals struggling to function under entrenched specialist shortages. … Increasingly financially squeezing public hospitals while increasing the demands on what they are required to do.” I am quoting all this from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. He also had “Excessive political micro-management, including threatened financial penalties,”. He created a “punitive culture in public hospitals”, and there was a “failure to invest in the health workforce in public hospitals, including senior doctors,”.

That came from our senior doctors working in the health system. Those are not my words; they are their words. In fact, his insidious and bullying approach to the portfolio has now led to staff being afraid to speak out, being scared that their jobs will be at risk, and being unable to give free and frank advice.

💬 Hon Anne Tolley: It’s not doing you any good, Annette.

It has led to NGOs and providers being scared that their funding will not continue if they do not agree with the Minister. So I say to the member who is over there interjecting, let me read to her a very unusual letter I have received: “I am a long-time loyal employee of the Ministry of Health. I have worked in the sector for many years. I cannot recall a time when the targeting has become so personalised and insidious, and it has been dangerous to work in the health sector. There appears to be overt targeting of both chairs and chief executive officers in a number of district health boards. It is embarrassing to see senior leaders bullying, dominating, and shouting at individual district health boards. Increasingly, district health boards are required to have all of their Official Information Act requests checked and agreed to, to ensure that the messages are controlled and the information modified. Increasingly the messages are verbal, so nothing can be traced. There is no sense of direction and the leadership is totally inept. District health boards are overtly being disempowered and made ineffective. There is no understanding in the sector. This is an increasing risk to health.”

Those words come from those working in the health sector, and that is why I think that they need to be exposed, because this Minister has been very successful in keeping the lid on health but not successful in improving the health of many New Zealanders. We have learnt in these last few days the cost of going to a doctor for adult New Zealanders has gone up.

Report noted.

Ministry of Education