Dr Lynda Scott National Associate Health Spokesperson

14 November 2001

Health bureaucracy grows while patients wait

Health Minister Annette King is continuing to increase bureaucracy in the Ministry of Health at the expense of paying medical staff properly for better health services, National's Associate Health spokesperson Dr Lynda Scott said today.

"Annette King has to justify why she's created a Principal Medical Advisor position who will report directly to her, when she already has a Director General of Health.

"Many cancer patients could have received treatment for the cost of this new position, which seems to be a minder for an inept Minister who needs all the help she can get.

"The Minister must justify how this position will change how she's running down the health service. After two years as Minister she has the health system reeling from underfunding, cancer patients waiting months for treatment, and doctors, nurses and technicians leaving New Zealand in droves due to poor pay and conditions.

"The Minister has already set up an informal group of advisors who work in the health sector to meet with her on a regular basis.

"All the advice in the world to Annette King will not solve the problems she has created in health. She should stop wasting money on advisors and bureaucrats and provide the better services at the ground level in hospitals she promised," Dr Scott said.

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