Jonathan Coleman MP
National Party Associate Health Spokesman

07 March 2007

Would you write a cheque for $76m?

Little is being done to monitor how the Healthy Eating Health Action (He Ha) programme is spending $76 million worth of funding, says National's Associate Health spokesman, Dr Jonathan Coleman.

"Today, Ministry of Health officials told a select committee that there are no effective measures in place to ensure that He Ha is delivering results.

"The committee was told that there is a 'framework' for an evaluation process and that 'scoping exercises' were taking place. In short, no hard data is being gathered to tell us if the programme is working or not.

"Even worse, the Ministry officials said it might be a further five years before comprehensive data is available."

In the 2006 Budget, the Health Minister trumpeted the $76 million being allocated to fight childhood obesity. He omitted to say how the money would be spent, or how he would ensure that results were delivered.

"It's just not good enough. The Minister has got the cart before the horse - he's spending the money and will worry about whether it's effective at some later date.

"How will we know if this money is helping stop our kids from getting fat, if there's no way to check that the programme works?

"It just reflects the culture of waste and lack of accountability that's running rife in the health sector."

ENDS

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