Opening MedicAlert national office and launch of Patient Vitals health portal

Good morning.  Thank you for your kind introduction.

I am delighted to be invited to this double celebration: the opening of this new MedicAlert national office here in Upper Hutt City, and the launch of MedicAlert's Patient Vitals health portal.

These are significant developments, new and innovative ways of health care delivery.

I'd like at this stage to firstly acknowledge the excellent Mayor of Upper Hutt Wayne Guppy, thank you for your service to the people of this city - and also your strong contribution to the Hutt Valley District Health Board.  I also acknowledge my Parliamentary colleague Paul Quinn MP.

I'd also like to acknowledge our overseas speaker from MedicAlert International; and our hosts MedicAlert New Zealand, Chairman John Brookie, CEO Murray Lord and his team, as well as the other speakers today.

I know we have good representation from the NGO community here today so this is an opportunity for me to acknowledge NGOs as a major part of the publicly funded health and disability support services available in New Zealand.

NGOs not only provide health services, they give a vital voice to the communities and groups they represent.

Your work continues to be valuable to the performance of the health system. 

Thank you.

We've had some very interesting speeches so far today so I will be brief. 

We're here today in Upper Hutt City - in what I am told is the one of the most progressive and beautiful cities within the Wellington region.

Your District Health Board is doing well with improvements with more patients than ever getting elective surgery, a faster emergency department and improved preventive medicine is areas like immunisation and smoking cessation.

As you will appreciate, dividing up the health budget is no easy task. It is a challenging job.

For the past ten years, both governments have allocated health funding on a population basis. Roughly, if your DHB has 10% of the population, then they get 10% of the money available.

Since the change of government, your DHB's funding has increased by $31 million.  This has been your population share of the extra $1.3 billion put into Vote Health. Your DHB has also received an additional $9 million in what we call "deficit support" to help protect and maintain local services.

Across the harbour in Wellington, the Capital and Coast DHB's population funding share for health services has grown by $60 million. That's Wellington's population share of the extra funding for DHBs.

But as you know we inherited a very large bill for unfunded services there; Capital and Coast was delivering services for which the previous government never paid them.  We inherited several years of accumulated deficits where the previous government allowed CCDHB to spend without any funding. 

So in early 2009, the new government put an extra $70 million of funding into Capital and Coast to cover the shortfall in funding.  That was on top of their population share of increased funding. Earlier this year 2010, we put in another $87 million to cover the shortfall.  Again, on top of their population share.

That's $157 million extra on top of Wellington's population based share. That's money that could have gone to other DHBs, but because of the parlous state of finances we inherited at Capital and Coast DHB we put that extra money in.

So in total in the past 18 months the National Government has put an extra $217 million into Capital and Coast DHB, because we know the importance of public health services to Wellingtonians.

I congratulate MedicAlert on the services you provide your members, and on the launch of the new Patient Vitals portal that we have already heard so much about this morning.

MedicAlert's Patient Vitals health portal demonstrates how electronic health records can be created, and shared with patients over the Internet.

This is in line with the Government's goal of future proofing the public health service.

We live in difficult economic times - and we will continue to do so for quite some time yet.

We face increasing costs with newer and newer health technology - and the public want more and better services. It is challenging.

If demand for health services is to double over the next 10 years as some estimate,   then we are not in a position to double the size of Wellington Hospital or double the number of doctors or nurses.

That is why we need to move services to a lower cost platform that can deliver care closer to home ... and that is care in the community.

It also makes clinical sense. The international evidence is clear - health systems that have a stronger primary health services get better results.

Promoting ‘shared care' is another move to keeping people healthy and out of hospital.

If patients can share access to their own health information, they can be supported by their healthcare provider to better manage their own health, in their own home.

The challenge that we face, as a nation, is to achieve what MedicAlert has done for its members, for all New Zealanders.

This is quite a challenge when you consider that there are more than 12,000 healthcare provider organisations in New Zealand, each of which holds different records for a given individual.

Very few countries have successfully established a national approach to electronic health records - I want New Zealand to continue being among the leading group.

Information needs to be available at the point of care.

The national plan, which is set out in the National Health IT Plan, is to achieve high-quality healthcare and improve patient safety.

By 2014, New Zealanders could have a core set of personal health information available electronically to them and their treatment providers regardless of where they access health services.

The National Health IT Plan was finalised very recently following sector consultation. If you have not seen it yet there are some copies here, or you can download it from the National Health IT Board website.

Therefore, our challenge at a national level is not a technological one.

As a country, our challenges are getting health professionals:

• working together and understanding the value proposition of sharing vital patient health information;
• getting them to trust information that has come from another source; and
• developing and using health IT systems that interoperate so information can transfer between different organisations easily and securely.

These are the issues we aim to address with Phase 1 of the National Health IT Plan.

Phase 2 of the National Plan extends the sharing of health records with clinicians and their patients.

In the future, to support greater online access to information, and the use of advanced technologies such as those required for telemedicine and home-based remote monitoring, the Government is funding two national broadband investments, which aim to deliver ultra-fast broadband to the majority New Zealanders.

This includes schools and health sites of significance to the local community, including hospitals, and primary health care sites.

The Ultra-Fast Broadband Initiative is currently focusing on thirty-three candidate urban centres, covering 75% of the population.

The second broadband initiative, the Rural Broadband Initiative, extends coverage to rural areas.

We hope these Broadband initiatives will in the future enable MedicAlert members to access their new Patient Vitals health portal much faster than they might have been able to.

MedicAlert is to be commended for this latest development.

You have come a long way since you were set up to save lives in 1956.

You do a wonderful job providing vital information in the case of emergencies, ensuring the best outcomes for people, and allowing them - often the most vulnerable in our community - to live as independently as possible.

Thank you for the work that you do.

With the opening of this new facility, I hope MedicAlert will go from strength to strength.

With the cutting of this ribbon, I declare the MedicAlert national office here in Upper Hutt open. Thank you.