Search

Good morning.

It is a pleasure to be here to open your seminar on clinical governance and help you launch the report of the Clinical Governance Assessment Project.

The Project’s goal is to assess the progress New Zealand is making in improving clinical governance and leadership in our public health service….to see how we are doing in re-engaging frontline clinicians in the running of the public health service.

This is the largest research project of its kind in the history of the New Zealand public health service.

Thank you for inviting me here today to make this exciting announcement.

It is my pleasure to announce the New Zealand Blood Service, in partnership with Ngāi Tahu Property, is building a new blood donor and laboratory centre here in Christchurch.

The new centre, which is planned to open its doors in just over two years’ time, will be a purpose designed building that will house a donor centre, manufacturing and testing laboratories, specialised warehousing and support offices.

Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here today.

I would like to thank the team at Malyon House in particular David and Cecily Munro for inviting me here to officially open the recently rebuilt Malyon House facility.

It is an exciting time for everyone, not only has the facility undergone a major upgrade it has also been extended to provide additional beds and now offers both rest home and hospital level care.

Welcome

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to open your 65th annual scientific meeting.

Since your first meeting when Mabel Howard was Minister of Health, there have been another 24 ministers serving on average two and a half years each.

During that time your specialty has changed a lot too… with new ways of treating and caring for patients: Smarter technology, smarter techniques and smarter use of the wider healthcare team. Even your specialty name has changed.

I am pleased to be with you this morning to open your conference with its theme this year of Self-Care.

Self-care is fundamental to good health because it's about personal responsibility.

It's about what we as individuals and families can do to improve and maintain our health, and to make choices about how we do that.

Today my comments will focus on this theme as well as clinical integration, changes in pharmacy, and the opportunity for patients and families to take greater control of their own health.

Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here today and open this workshop.

I would like to thank Kaumatua Wally Campbell for the warm welcome and Dr Beverley Lawton for the invitation to speak to you about how we can improve maternity care for mothers and babies, and their families.

Can I also acknowledge Professor Stacie Geller, the 2010 Woman of the Year from the University of Illinois Chancellors Committee on the Status of Women.
You have achieved a lot of distinguished work on behalf of women.

Thank you Dr Alistair Sullivan for your kind introduction.

And thank you White Cross for inviting me to officially open your new integrated family health centre here in Lunn Ave, Mt Wellington.

This, I understand is the biggest White Cross family medical centre in the country - offering the people of Mt Wellington accident and medical as well as low cost primary care services, seven days a week.

It is a pleasure for me to join you today here in Wellington for your 20th national diabetes nurse specialist symposium.

I would like to thank the diabetes symposium planning group, in particular Lindsay McTavish and Lorna Bingham, for the invitation to speak to you about what we are doing to support children and adults with diabetes.

Good health is hugely important to New Zealanders. A strong public health service gives families peace of mind – knowing that the care they need will be there, when they need it.

And that’s the priority of our government too.

Protecting and growing the public health service.

We have spent the past four years repairing the damage of a decade of wasteful spending, never-ending bureaucracy and a lack of clinical engagement.

And we’re making a lot of progress.

Today is Day 5 of the Government’s new immunisation health target: that by the end of 2014, 95% of all eight-month olds will be fully vaccinated.

This new immunisation target replaces the highly successful target focused on lifting the immunisation rate of two year olds.

In the past three years of the earlier health target, New Zealand went from one of the lowest immunisation rates in the developed world to one of the best. Today I can tell you that 93% of all kiwi two year olds are fully immunised. That compares to only 67% in 2007.

It’s now fifteen months since the Prime Minister indicated the National Government would sell minority stakes in the four state owned energy companies and Air New Zealand.

Since that time, there’s been a general election.  The opposition parties focused their campaigns on the Mixed Ownership Model.  The voters gave the National Party their confidence… with the highest vote of any party under MMP ever.

Good afternoon.

It is a pleasure to be here today to help open your newly refurbished buildings.

While medical progress finds new cures at an accelerating pace every day, there will always the need for end of life care.

And as Dame Cicely Saunders – the modern founder of Hospice – said the end of life "can turn out to be the most important part."

The government recognises the vital part Hospice plays in providing relief, comfort and dignity to people who may be in pain and difficult circumstances.