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Health Minister Tony Ryall has today announced the Government is moving to fast track plans to rebuild Grey Base Hospital in Greymouth.

Mr Ryall says a special Hospital Redevelopment Partnership Group will be established to finalise and fast track the redevelopment plans by the end of April next year.

The Group brings the DHB, Ministry of Health and Treasury together in a collaborative approach that will save time and money. The standard large-scale building approval process can sometimes take years.

Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew announced today that streamlined auditing of rest homes, saving up to six hours for each audit, will be introduced from 1 January 2013.

This follows a successful trial of the new process in 23 rest homes this year.

“We continue to look at ways of reducing the regulatory burden for providers while maintaining the integrity of the audit process,” said Mrs Goodhew.

Specially trained pharmacists will soon be able to prescribe medication, making access to medication easier for some patients, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne announced today.

In line with moves already successfully made in Britain, the United States and Canada, clinical pharmacists will be able to undergo special training and competency assessments to register in a new advanced scope of practice developed by the Pharmacy Council with the support of Health Workforce New Zealand.

Health Minister Tony Ryall says general practices, supported by Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), are making good progress in the three national preventive health targets.

Over the past year general practices have:

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said today signalled the launch of Rising to the Challenge, a new national five-year plan for mental health and addiction.

“There has been considerable change in mental health, and in the last 20 years mental health funding has risen more than four-fold to $1.2 billion in the 2010/11 year,” Mr Dunne said.

“And among this, services have grown significantly particularly in community care where three quarters of mental health funding is now invested.

More people with diabetes will soon find it easier to get the medication they need – by seeing a diabetes nurse specialist for their usual prescription, instead of the doctor.

Health Minister Tony Ryall announced during a visit to Southern DHB today that an additional 15 nurses across six DHBs will soon be able to write prescriptions for their patients with diabetes.

“This brings the total number of diabetes nurse specialists able to prescribe to 27 – and more specialist nurses are likely to start training next year,” Mr Ryall said.

Accessing health information in your region is now easier following the launch of new health web tool, My DHB, says Health Minister Tony Ryall.

“Public reporting on the performance of our health services is a key focus of this Government.

“New Zealanders can now access, in one place, health information specific to their district health board (DHB) region. This includes rest home audits, health funding and health target results.

A free whooping cough vaccine will be available to all pregnant women from 1 January 2013 to help protect their new-born babies from this serious disease.

“International research shows the most effective way to protect babies before they are immunised, is to vaccinate the mother during pregnancy so antibodies are passed on to the baby,” says Health Minister Tony Ryall.

There have been 6,700 notified cases of whooping cough since August last year – of which over 200 were babies under one year of age who required hospital treatment.

Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew today announced the release of a consultation document on a proposal to allow premium-only aged residential care facilities.

Premium-only facilities are those that provide additional services with all their rooms and therefore charge extra for every room.  A 2009 survey found that 44 per cent of facilities had some premium rooms.

Yesterday we were full of anger.

Yesterday we were full of despair.

The Te Ohonga Ake report told us absolutely definitively that each year 120 New Zealand children die of poverty.

It told us that this year, 120 children will not wake up on Christmas morning: because they are dead.

That is three buses full of children – gone.

Three ghost buses of Maori, Pasifika, Pakeha and Asian children driven over a cliff of disinterest, neglect, abuse and mere poverty.

“It’s unacceptable to see that despite the work and investment being undertaken in health to reduce disparities between Maori and non-Maori, our Maori tamariki are still dying and suffering from diseases at a higher rate than others in this country.”

Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia commented today on the release of the second of three reports in the Ministry of Health’s Te Ohonga Ake series on Maori child health. This second report focuses on the health status of Maori children and young people. 

There’s been a big increase in the number of children under six getting free doctors’ visits – the numbers are up 25 per cent on four years ago.

Health Minister Tony Ryall visited the Hillcrest Medical Centre in Hamilton today – one of the 965 general practices in the country providing free doctors’ visits to children under six during the daytime.

“We are committed to ensuring more young children get to see the doctor when they need to, and removing cost as a reason not to,” says Mr Ryall.

Health Minister Tony Ryall today announced Dr Jan White has been appointed as a member of the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC) board.

“Dr White is a highly skilled director with wide-ranging health sector management experience,” said Mr Ryall.

“A medical doctor by training, Dr White has held a number of key health sector posts including six years as Chief Executive of the Waikato District Health Board and seven years as Chief Executive of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).”

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.

E ngā iwi e tau mai nei i tēnei pō ki te whakanui i ēnei tohu hauora, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

It is with great pleasure that I stand and speak at these awards tonight.

Tonight the recipients of these awards will pick up the mantle of those kaumātua and kuia – some of our most passionate health leaders who have since passed on. And it is into these very big shoes our scholars step today - and in stepping into these shoes our scholars are stepping into health environments and communities that need them as much today as ever before.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne today announced that he will establish an independent expert committee early next year to set the approval standards legal highs will need to meet.

Mr Dunne said he had directed the Ministry of Health to develop a regulatory regime consistent with international best practice, avoiding animal testing wherever possible.
He confirmed that he has ruled out the controversial LD50 test, but said that it was still early in the process of developing the new regime and no other decisions had been made.

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.

Health Minister Tony Ryall today announced the New Zealand Blood Service, in partnership with Ngāi Tahu Property, will build a new blood donor and laboratory centre in Christchurch.

“80 per cent of us will need blood treatment at some point in our lives. Thanks to the country’s 120,000 blood donors, New Zealand is proudly self-sufficient in blood and blood products,” says Mr Ryall.

“The new centre will help ensure New Zealanders receive the blood treatments they need – even as demand continues to increase.

Patients who need to travel outside their region for specialist health services or frequently to appointments are receiving more support than ever before.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said this government is committed to improving access to health services for New Zealanders.

“Last financial year, $38 million in travel and accommodation assistance was provided to over 33,000 patients – 40 per cent more funding than in 2008.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has ruled out the controversial LD50 animal test as part of the pending psychoactive substances testing regime, and said no decisions have been made on whether animal testing will be needed at all.

“And no decisions will be made without consultation with other ministries and appropriate ethics committee consideration,” Mr Dunne said.

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.

The National-led Government is making it easier for disabled and older New Zealanders to live independently at home longer by increasing home and community support services.

Health Minister Tony Ryall says 14.4 million hours of home and community support were provided to disabled and older New Zealanders last financial year – 2.5 million more hours than four years ago.

“These extra support hours are used to help people with activities such as showering, dressing, and preparing a meal,” says Mr Ryall.

General practice and district health boards are well on track to achieve the Government’s Better Public Services immunisation target, says Health Minister Tony Ryall. 

“Our goal is 95 per cent of babies fully immunised by the time they’re eight months old, by December 2014, and that coverage rate maintained until at least 2017,” Mr Ryall says.

The latest national health target results, released today, show district health boards (DHBs) have made great progress on the new increased immunisation and shorter waits for cancer treatment targets.

“This is the first time chemotherapy wait times have been included in the cancer target,” says Health Minister Tony Ryall.

“All DHBs have achieved the new target with every patient receiving their radiotherapy and chemotherapy cancer treatment within the four week international gold standard.