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Health (2005)

LABOUR’S VISION

Labour is committed to improving the affordability, accessibility and quality of health services for all New Zealanders. We will continue to focus on preventative and primary health care and ensuring communities have access to the health services they need. Our investment in preventative health care is also key to ensuring the sustainability of secondary health services.

Labour will also continue to invest in the health workforce and in workforce planning to maintain stability in the sector, and to ensure the provision of quality health services.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Labour has invested heavily in health- spending is up 60% over the past 5 years. The results can be seen in primary health care, more hospital treatments, higher quality and better co-ordinated mental health care and more initiatives in public health.

Labour has delivered:

The largest public hospital upgrades ever undertaken in New Zealand. New hospitals have already been opened in Auckland, West Auckland, Christchurch and Invercargill. Current projects also underway include: Waitemata, Counties Manukau, Wellington, Kenepuru, Wairarapa, Horowhenua, Dunstan, Waikato, Thames, Kaitaia and Tauranga;
A funding mechanism that gives District Health Boards certainty and allows for better long term planning. Only two DHBs are currently forecasting deficits;
More affordable primary health care. 3.8 million New Zealanders now belong to PHOs, and some two million of them are already entitled to cheaper doctors’ visits and subsidised prescriptions;
A stronger more stable health workforce. District health boards will get more than half a billion dollars over the next four years to help them meet the cost of the significant pay increase for nurses;
Free meningococcal meningitis immunisation for all young people;
An extra $40 million in extra funding to implement the Cancer Control Strategy. This includes:

$13.2 million breast screen age extension,
$6.4 million in primary prevention activities such as Healthy Eating, Healthy Action, free fruit in schools, and Health Promoting schools,
$2.2 million for smoking cessation services, including initiatives to stop young people taking up smoking,
$6.0 million palliative care, including hospice support,
$5.3 million for treatment services including an extra $4 million for cancer drugs,
$3.2 million in research and development,
$1.1 million for workforce development;

Access for all New Zealanders to Healthline, a free nationwide health information phone line;
A comprehensive strategy for health and wellbeing, with planned development in key areas of health through the New Zealand Health Strategy and the Disability Strategy;
An ongoing focus on increasing hospital throughput and reducing waiting times for elective procedures;
More than $37 million in initiatives to improve rural New Zealanders access to health services including travel subsidies and a mobile surgical bus, which brings specialist services to smaller areas;
An increase in funding to home-based support services and home care for older New Zealanders, to provide services to people who choose to remain in their own homes rather than enter rest home care;
Removal of asset testing for thousands of older New Zealanders in need of rest home care;
Sustained investment in mental health. $257 million was allocated in 2000/01 and an additional $250 million in 2004 to continue the implementation of the Mental Health Commission’s Blueprint.

LABOUR PRIORITIES

Preventative healthcare

Labour will:

Focus on primary healthcare through the continued roll out of accessible and affordable primary health care services. By July 2007, every New Zealander will be entitled to more affordable primary health care and lower prescription medicine costs through Primary Health Organisations;
Continue to focus on preventive health care. We are committed, for example, to the implementation of the Cancer Control Strategy, the Healthy Eating Healthy Action Plan to combat diabetes and obesity, the Cardiovascular Action Plan to reduce heart disease, and more health prevention initiatives through Primary Health Organisations;
Continue to increase elective surgery numbers through initiatives such as the orthopaedic and cataracts project. We are committed to funding 7500 extra cataract operations and 10,000 extra major joint procedures over the next three years.

A HEALTHY START

Labour will continue to ensure all young New Zealanders have a healthy start in life by:

Extending the entitlement to Well Child checks for pre-school children from 6.5 core visits to 8 visits per child;
Implementing a free “School Ready” check up for all children before they start school, which will include access to immunisations, hearing and vision checks;
Providing all newborns with a free hearing test;
Continuing to provide free maternity services;
Ensuring all New Zealand hospitals become baby friendly hospitals by the end of 2006;
Continuing to provide affordable access for children to primary health care and medicines through Primary Health Organisations;
Increasing our support of community agencies which:

Provide parent support through programmes like Well Child,
Coordinate services to families, including through one-stop centres;

Funding Healthline, a 24 hours, seven days a week, free health information service.

STRENGTHENING HEALTH SERVICES

Labour will:

Strengthen the health sector workforce by:

Training a health workforce that is able to sustainably deliver health services for all New Zealanders,
Progressively increase training for people working in the aged care sector, starting with a foundation course, and with recognition of prior learning for the many experienced staff in the sector,
Improving the competency and quality of our health professionals through initiatives such as Nursing Scholarships, Post Graduate, Rural and Step Up Scholarships,
Conducting a specific review of the funding arrangements for medical and dental students;

Continue to improve the accessibility of health services by:

Investing in health infrastructure to ensure communities have ready access to specialist services,
Expanding the use of mobile units, such as dental and surgical units;

Strengthening capability for monitoring expenditure in the health sector to ensure that funding is being used effectively to maximise outcomes.

RURAL HEALTH

Labour will:

Improve access to health services for those in rural areas through the:

Roll out of the national travel and accommodation subsidy. This policy will give up to 100,000 kiwis access to publicly funded specialist healthcare services no matter where they live,
Ongoing funding of rural health workforce initiatives, to improve the retention of staff in rural practices and ensure practitioners working in rural practices have reasonable on call rosters,
Investigate and implement initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining junior doctors, new graduates and nurses in rural areas;

Upskill the rural health work force by:

Funding more primary health care rural nurse practitioner scholarships,
Continuing to provide funding to PRIME (Primary Response in Medical Emergency) training schemes;

Continue the programme of capital funding projects to improve and extend rural hospitals.

MENTAL HEALTH

Over the past 6 years, Labour has invested heavily in Mental Health. Labour remains committed to improving the support of those with significant mental health needs.

Labour will:

Implement the Second New Zealand Mental Health and Addiction Plan, which will provide the way forward for mental health in New Zealand over the next 10 years. The plan focuses on:

Promoting mental health and wellbeing, and preventing mental illness and addiction,
Building and broadening the range of services and supports, which are funded for people who are severely affected by mental illness,
Building a mental health and addiction workforce that supports recovery and is committed to improving the quality of services for people,
Strengthening the capability of the primary health care sector to promote mental health and well being, and to respond to the needs of people with mental illness and addiction.

ORAL HEALTHCARE

Labour will:

Ensure that all children and adolescents up to the age of 18 have access to free dental care by:

Rebuilding and re-equipping the School Dental Service,
Working with dental professionals to provide a comprehensive adolescent oral health service,
Ensuring that there are adequate mobile and community dental services available,
Requiring DHBs to provide Dental Assistants to work along side Dental Therapists, so that Therapists are able to maximize the time they spend treating patients,
Increasing the number of Dental Therapists in training;

Improve access to dental care for low income adults, as resources allow, by utilising spare capacity in mobile and community dental services.

AGED CARE

Labour’s vision for aged care is based on the following principles:

Respect for older New Zealanders;
Continuous improvement in the quality and safety of care;
Equitable access to services that are increasingly responsive to an individual's needs and holistic in their design.

Labour will:

Address the insufficient wages and conditions that exist in some parts of the sector, by applying the substantial injection of funding for the sector in Budget 2005. This, in turn, will reduce high staff turnover;
Complete, by December 2005, a study to determine future funding levels needed to secure sustainability in the sector;
Respond to the fact that, because older New Zealanders are entering residential care later and later (if at all), the level of residents acuity is rising. Therefore standards, staffing levels and funding must progressively recognise that shift;
Progressively implement more flexible models of care so that an older person's individual needs are more directly met. Such a shift has many components. They include:

More responsive home based services,
Better and earlier involvement of primary healthcare professionals,
The use of residential services for temporary care before a person returns supported, back in their own home,
Better linkages between assessment, treatment and rehabilitation (ATR) services in hospital and other parts of the aged care sector,
Better information systems.

Continue to require DHBs to maintain an adequate range and geographical distribution of aged care facilities.

ORGAN DONATION

Labour will facilitate organ donation in New Zealand through:

Support for Organ Donation New Zealand;
The establishment of a nation wide Organ Donation Register;
An informed consent process to ensure that people who indicate they would like to be organ donors have their wishes respected;
Covering some of the costs incurred by those who choose to participate in live donations.

OTHER REGIONS +NORTHERN