Stop undermining our public hospitals
Today in the House the Green Party slammed the Government for contracting out surgery to private hospitals when operating theatres in our public hospitals are sitting idle.
Recent Ministry of Health analysis shows that ten out of our 26 hospitals are operating at under 60% capacity, with only four operating theatres at full capacity.
“It appears that the Minister did not even bother to find out whether there was unused capacity in the public sector before rushing into contracting out surgery to the private sector. Rather than being based on evidence his decision was based purely on ideology and is part of his Government’s wider privatisation agenda,” said Green Party Health Spokesperson Kevin Hague.
“Instead of going straight for the privatisation option, most New Zealanders would expect the Government to first figure out how to use our existing public theatres as well as we can. Some obvious actions are to facilitate much greater collaboration between DHBs, and to take immediate steps to recruit, retain and train more of the health professionals needed in our hospitals.
“The contracting out of surgery is part of the Government’s plan to undermine public health care to force New Zealanders to take out private health insurance. This will enable the Government to slash the health budget despite projected cost increases due to an ageing population and obesity epidemic,” said Mr Hague.
For further information
Interaction between the public and private health sector, Ministry of Health, 9 July 2009 http://www.greens.org.nz/
Kevin Hague’s blog Outsourcing health no solution (http://blog.greens.org.nz/
Ryall undermining public health for private gain Green Party Press Release (www.greens.org.nz/node/21548)