Where’s the progress on PlunketLine?

National Party Associate Health spokeswoman Katherine Rich is calling on the Health Minister to repeat her assurance that PlunketLine will be up to scratch by the end of the month.

“Labour was adamant that the merger between Healthline and PlunketLine would be successful. They assured parents that PlunketLine would continue to provide good service.

“But since the amalgamation of the two free-calling services, PlunketLine appears to have been forced into the position of being the poor cousin, with large numbers of calls from stressed parents going unanswered.

“The latest figures show that in May, of the 35,610 calls to PlunketLine, 87.4% were unanswered, while only 4,485 calls were ‘handled’.

“Before the merger the Minister was shocked that 30% of calls went unanswered. Now, when nearly nine out of ten calls are unanswered she’s taken her phone off the hook.

“At Healthline 13,032 calls were received, and only 4.9% of calls were unanswered.

“The Health Minister has been constantly reassuring the public that Labour is in the process of fixing PlunketLine. With a deadline looming at the end of the month, the figures show there’s still a long way to go,” says Mrs Rich.

Ends

© Scoop Media