Hospital Beds

Health Minister Bill English said today the success of health workers, nurses and doctors in improving publicly-funded care for people had resulted in the need for less public hospital beds.

"The great majority of the reductions are precisely because the public health service is doing a better job of looking after the elderly and people with disabilities and people with mental health problems," he said.

"The quality of their care is more important than which building the beds are in and more important than keeping up the numbers of public hospital beds.

"The reduction in public hospital bed numbers also reflects the reality of our modernised public hospitals that are now using improved medicines and new surgery techniques to dramatically cut the number of days a person needs to stay in hospital.

"I'd rather be spending our health dollars on more care for more people than empty beds with fresh linen. The fact is that is what we are doing.

"We had 520,000 patients through our public hospitals last year. That was 20,000 more than the year before.

"Our public hospitals are doing more, for more people while holding them in hospital beds for less time because people can be treated and returned to health more quickly in a modern health service.

"On the other hand in the past we also held people with disabilities and mental illnesses in hospitals and public institutions for long periods, if not their whole lives.

"Today that is no longer acceptable. Instead the Government is still paying for these people's care but that care is being provided by welfare, religious, non-profit and private organisations that offer specialised care in the community.

"The Government still pays the bills. The difference is the people are getting better care than they would get in a hospital.

"Hospitals are for sick people. These people are not sick but they do need and deserve the best care the government can provide. When they are sick, like anyone else, our public hospitals are there to provide excellence in hospital care so the person can as quickly as possible return to their normal life," Mr English said.