Wed, 19 May 2004
Labour + Taxpayers' Money = Fewer Services
Heather Roy - Press Releases - Health
Increasing amounts of taxpayers' money poured into health, and resulting in reduced services, seems to be the Labour
Government's new way of running the health sector, ACT New Zealand Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.
"Today's announcement, that public hospital operations have dropped - despite massive funding injections - follows last
week's release of Mental Health Commission figures showing that more money has resulted in less services for the
public," Mrs Roy said.
"Since becoming the Government in 1999, Labour has increased mental health spending by $321 million on mental health,
but has still failed to provide anything that even remotely resembles a reasonable mental health system.
"And, this financial year, the Government plans to spend almost $800 million. New Zealand now spends more per capita on
mental health than Australia or the US - excluding what the Corrections Department spends on `special units', or
psychiatric wards in prisons.
"MHC figures show that three percent of all New Zealanders suffer from a serious mental illness. But, in the six months
to June 2003, only 1.6 percent of the population was seen by specialist mental health services - down from 1.7 percent
in the first half of the previous year.
"Mental health in New Zealand seems to go hand-in-hand with tragedy and heartache. While Ms King spends increasing
amounts of taxpayers' money on mental health, psychiatric patients continually slip through the cracks of our fragmented
health system. This is not value for money.
"The problem is that money is not the answer; I know it, health professionals know it - in fact, the only person who
doesn't know is the Minister, who is continuing the `cycle of tragedy' she railed against as Opposition health
spokesman.
"Pouring millions of dollars into mental health does nothing if there are no adequate measures to ensure proper
outcomes. If the Minister does not wake up to the flaws in her health policies soon, hers will be a legacy of tragedy
and pain," Mrs Roy said.
ENDS