Today saw the latest release of Tony Ryall’s statistics on the number of people employed in the public sector. Let’s recap on how these figures come about;
- National says they will cap, but not cut the public service. (see John Key’s speech to PSA Congress 2008)
- In order to “measure” this National creates something called “core government administration” and says that resources will go from there to the “frontline”.
- Tony Ryall admits in Parliament that he has no definition of what “frontline” services are, and later that there are jobs in “core government administration” that might be considered frontline, and may have been cut. (think DOC rangers, Fisheries and Biosecurity officers)
- After two years more than 1800 positions are gone, with the promise of more, and morale in the public service and public confidence in services sink further.
National Party supporters crow that this is just what is needed to reduce wasteful bureaucracy, and celebrate thousands of New Zealanders losing their jobs. Remember this is a government that supposedly has a “relentless” focus on jobs and keeping people in work. And as Bill English has told us this is just the beginning. These jobs don’t exist in a vacuum, they are linked to services we all need and use.
There is no doubt the Christchurch Earthquake showed the value of those who are “at the frontline” like the rescue workers crawling through rubble, and those who back them up, like the staff at the Ministry of Health who coordinated the moves of disabled Christchurch people and set up the emergency response network with DHBs. They are both important, and we need strong public services for all New Zealanders.
As with Tony Ryall in health this is all just slogans and manufactured targets. There is nothing here about the quality of public services New Zealanders are receiving, how they will be more responsive, innovative and linked to their communities. Just scratching a political itch. To make matters worse, he claims credit for more teachers and doctors, which a) may not actually exist and b) if they do began their training under Labour.
Lets have more efficient public services, by all means, but New Zealanders deserve better than Tony’s twaddle.
Posted in Public Sector, Health Cuts and Tony Ryall. |
Campbell Live did a piece tonight on the cost of after hours medical care. Worth a watch.
The amount of money being charged right around the country that they are reporting is huge, including well over $100 in some places, and even $66 for a fourteen year old in Auckland.
When I raised in Parliament earlier this year the case of Linley Williams who had paid $41 for her 20 month old to get after hours care I was told by Tony Ryall that this was a particular problem on the Kapiti Coast. It seems it is a particular problem in a large number of areas!
Since I raised that case I have had a number of letters from people who have been charged astronomical sums for after-hours care. As Linley Williams and one of the people quoted in the story said the only option for many people is heading an Emergency Department, which clogs them up even further.
These kinds of costs on top of the rest of the cost of living increases with petrol, power and food is really putting the pressure on families.
Posted in After Hours, Health Cuts and Tony Ryall. |
In Wellington we woke to the news on Friday that Ken Whelan, the Chief Executive of the Capital and Coast District Health Board had resigned. In his farewell email to staff Whelan said
there was no more room to cut the district health board’s costs, despite Government pressure to do so. “I cannot see where any more major efficiency can come from without negatively impacting on services.”
Even Sir John Anderson, the government’s appointment to Chair the Board has said that any further savings “would cut into muscle”.
I have had a bit to do with Ken over the last 18 months or so that I have been an MP, and I regard him very highly. He listened, he was honest, and had a very good grasp on what was happening within the DHB. When he sounds the warning he has made on his departure, the government should listen. The two areas where I have the biggest concerns in Wellington are mental health and public health where cuts are starting to have an impact. In Mental Health this will get worse with the closing of the two community clinics in the city and Kilbirnie set to cause significant disruption to service, despite the best efforts of the staff involved.
When we combine what is happening in Wellington, the public uprising over neurosurgery in Dunedin, the at least 80 cuts to frontline services elsewhere across the country, as highlighted by my colleague Ruth Dyson, and the fact we still do not have a Director-General of Health in place, questions have got to be asked about where Tony Ryall is taking Health. It is never going to be easy. Maintaining and developing health services with an ageing population, increased costs and understandable public desire for locally accessible services is a tough ask. But it needs leadership and it needs to get beyond glib answers in Parliament.
A place to start? Of Capital and Coast’s $47 million deficit, $37 million of it relates to the building of the regional hospital. A senior health professional I spoke to on Friday noted that other DHBs with financial issues are also in this state because of costs related to the buildings. A chunk of this is due to the capital charging regime. I think we need to re-look at the capital charging regime. Of course we want DHBs and other government entities to be efficient in their use of buildings and capital, but if it starts to mean cuts into core medical services, we have to question if the priorities are right?
Posted in Health Cuts, Public Services and Health. |
