Paul Hutchison MP National Party Health Spokesman
05 July 2005
OECD highlights Labour's health sector failings
National Party Health spokesman Paul Hutchison says the latest OECD report proves Labour has no idea how to run an
efficient health system.
The report says:
"Although it has long been generally assumed that an expansion of inputs would directly feed into a rise in output (or
equivalently, the labour intensity of many public services make productivity gains virtually impossible to achieve), it
is now increasingly obvious that this assumption is false."
"Given repeated Treasury warnings of productivity problems in the health sector, and Michael Cullen's admission that
health spending is unsustainable, it is appalling that Labour continues to throw huge amounts of untargeted funds at the
sector without robust output measures," says Dr Hutchison.
The report also says: "The current weak state of information raises doubts about whether DHBs and other providers are
set sufficiently clear expectations about making productivity improvements and face strong enough incentives to improve
their performance. Current monitoring emphasises financial performance (which is of course important), rather than
efficient and effective service delivery."
"The OECD report makes it clear that the health system under Labour is not measuring productivity properly. There has
been a huge increase in terms of dollars, but virtually nothing to show for it.
"National will bring efficiency back into the health system," says Dr Hutchison.
ENDS