Speech to launch women’s health research trust fund in Wellington

  • Tony Ryall
Health

Good evening, and welcome to Premier House.

It is a pleasure to be here to launch the Women’s Health Research Centre Trust.

This is a great opportunity to discuss the opportunities and challenges of women’s health in New Zealand, and to acknowledge the work of the Women’s Health Research Centre in meeting these challenges.

Acknowledgements

  • Dr Beverly Lawton and Professor Harlene Hayne for your kind introduction.
  • I would particularly like to thank Dr Lawton for hosting today

I would like to commend the University of Otago for officially establishing the Women’s Health Research Centre Trust to assist with ongoing funding of the centre in a fiscal environment where getting the maximum benefit from each health dollar is vital.

Since the research centre was established in 2005, it has undertaken robust research and analysis of key health issues affecting kiwi women.

This research has informed public health efforts in addressing health needs of women and their families.

The Women’s Health Research Centre has provided regular and valuable advice and expertise to the government certainly during my 6 years as Minister of Health.

The research of the Women’s Health Research Centre has practical applications that apply directly to policy and service delivery.

The SAMM study which is an audit of severely ill pregnant women will inform the maternity service to reduce these severe events and their impact. Much of the severe maternal morbidity has been found to be preventable and we investing in education programs to address this. I’m happy to announce we will invest half a million a year into the national audit of severe maternal morbidity through the HQSC.

The EHine study tells us that young Maori pregnant teenagers present early in their pregnancy for care and that there are systems issues that prevent them getting to the next steps in their care. These results have led to the government investing in extra funding for the first comprehensive assessment in pregnancy. 

It is important that women maintain their health and make informed choices about their health care.

A number of Government initiatives and partnerships aim to support the unique health needs of women through health promotion, improving access to services and disease prevention.

These initiatives focus on reducing the rates of disease specific to women, such as gestational diabetes and female related cancers.

Diabetes affects over 200,000 people in New Zealand, and is of particular clinical concern in pregnant women.

Women with diabetes who are treated have better health outcomes for themselves and their infants.

The Ministry of Health will be launching national guidelines on the screening, diagnosis and management of Gestational Diabetes in New Zealand by October 2014. This will improve clinical practice and improve outcomes for mothers and babies.

It is important that we continue to back up current policies with robust research to maintain the health sector’s delivery of high quality, effective services which get the best value out of every health dollar.

Robust research lets us create high quality services that are effective, and provide value for money.

A recent health literacy research report which focused on pregnant Māori women under 25 found that approximately 70 per cent of them are not being screened for gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

This research identified health literacy barriers in understanding and managing gestational diabetes were major contributors to this poor screening rate.

The Centre’s current project on examining diabetes and the impact of maternal care disparities on Māori mothers and infants will help to identify barriers and enablers for improving health outcomes for this vulnerable population group.

Local Maternity Quality and Safety Programmes are underway in each DHB to further address some of the challenges for pregnant women navigating the health system.

These programmes monitor the quality of our local maternity services, and implement improvements for women and their whanau across hospital and community settings.

Midwives have a vital role to play in governance, programme development, and implementation of these local programmes.

Counties Manukau DHB is working with local midwives and general practice to strengthen local relationships, ensure clarity of responsibility of care and improve access in high needs areas. Community midwives are also working in drop-in clinics in general practice.

These programmes need robust research. Knowing how women access services, and what gets in their way is key to ensuring that they and their families can get the best possible health outcomes.

The more we know the better we can design maternity services with mums and babies at the centre.

The Ministry plans to undertake a Maternity Services Consumer Survey this year to gauge women’s perceptions of maternity services, and enable the Ministry to assess the current framework for maternity services, and the impact of new and ongoing policies.

It is great that studies like the E-Hine and the SAMM project led by Dr Lawton explore the barriers to, and enablers of, access to appropriate health care for young Māori women and their children. 

These projects also seek to understand the range of needs of young Māori women and their children during the early years of their child’s life to maximise their health and learning.

While New Zealand has the fourth highest rate of teenage pregnancy within the OECD, rates of teenage pregnancy have reduced significantly since 2007.

However, there is more we can do to support our young people.

This Government is taking action to reduce youth and unplanned pregnancies and improve sexual health.

We are expanding School Based Health Services to decile three schools and undertaking actions to support making primary care more ‘youth friendly’, as part of the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project.

The Ministry of Health will be refreshing its sexual and reproductive health programme in collaboration with the health sector and using the excellent research from the sector and independent bodies like the Centre.

DHBs are also coming up with ways to improve access to affordable and timely contraception for all New Zealanders.

For example, Counties Manukau DHB found that almost 20 per cent of births to teen parents are for a second or third baby. In response to this Counties Manukau DHB trained more health professionals to provide quality contraceptive advice and services targeted at young mums.

Counties Manukau DHB has provided 300 Long Acting Reversible Contraception devices to women postpartum since November 2013 as part of a Family Planning improvement pilot.

They have also launched a free vasectomy pilot. The 50 funded places were booked within the first 30 days showing that contraception is not just an issue for women.

The Government is committed to improving the health of families.

In Budget 2014 we invested:

  • $90 million over three years to extend free doctors’ visits and prescriptions for children to the age of 13.
  • From July 2015, more than 400,000 school children will be entitled to free GP visits and cost will not be an obstacle for families wanting to take their young children to the doctor.
  • $40 million towards the new Healthy Families programme to support New Zealand families to sustain a healthy weight, quit smoking and moderate alcohol consumption.
  • This programme is anticipated to benefit nearly a million New Zealanders and whenever the programme benefits a mum-to-be, then it benefits her baby too.
  • It will be rolled out in ten communities and led in each community by a local provider.

I began this evening talking about the important work of the Women’s Health Research Centre in addressing the unique health needs of women and the work underway in our community to support health promotion, reduce inequalities and disease prevention particular to women and young families. 

The initiatives and research projects discussed this evening show that the Government in partnership with organisations, like the Women’s Health Research Centre, are on the right track to achieving better health outcomes for women and their whanau.

As many of you will know I am leaving politics at the election. It has been a great privilege working with such high quality people throughout the health system who have real dedication, and a commitment to improving the lives of others.