Speech to Mana Cruising Club

Good afternoon to you all - thank you for taking the time out of your Saturday afternoon to join us for today’s event.

I would like to acknowledge Hekia Parata, Chris Finlayson and Pania Tyson-Nathan who have also joined us here today.

We are doing things nationally, regionally and locally to improve the health of New Zealanders.

National

• New Zealand has a world class health service of which we can justifiably be proud of.
• We spend a large amount of public money on health care - $14.6 billion this year. This level of expenditure is second only to our spending on social welfare.
•  New Zealand is one of a handful of OECD countries that has increased health spending in real terms. The rate of growth has slowed, but we have been able to protect front line services and numbers of clinical staff.

National Health Targets

The Government’s focus on a number of key health targets is making a real difference to prevention and care:

• In five years, our immunisation rates have gone from among the lowest in the developed world to one of the highest.
• Cancer patients are no longer flying to Australia for chemotherapy treatment.
• Record numbers of New Zealanders are having checks to see if they are at risk of heart disease or diabetes.
• Fewer people are now smoking.
• And more people are receiving elective surgeries, such as hip replacement surgery.

Aged Care

• The Government is determined to make a difference in the lives of our older people. In 2012/13, approximately $928 million was spent on aged residential care and $269 million was spent on home-based support services.
• In Budget 2013 the Government announced $70 million of additional funding over the next four years for aged care and dementia.
• This included, $20 million of additional funding for home support services to help more older New Zealanders stay in their homes longer.

Chronic Diseases

• Four non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease – make up around 80 per cent of the disease burden for the total population.
• Every 90 minutes a New Zealander dies as a result of causes related to cardiovascular disease – it is the leading cause of death and disease in New Zealand.
• We are investing $35.5 million more over four years to better support New Zealanders with or at risk of developing diabetes, pre-diabetes and heart disease.
• This includes $15.9 million to further increase the number of people getting heart and diabetes checks.
• We are also doubling the funding for “Green Prescriptions” over the next four years at a cost of $7.2 million.
• More than a quarter of a million people have already received a Green Prescription since the initiative began in 1998. That figure is expected to double and be around half a million by 2016/17.
• 60 per cent of people given a Green Prescription are spending more time being active, one in seven people have noticed positive health changes including weight loss and 65 per cent made changes to their diet, including eating less junk food and having smaller meals.
•  The benefits aren’t just for the individual either – two thirds of people reported they have encouraged others to be more active.

Regional

• Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs are working closely together

Local

• Funding for Capital & Coast DHB has increased by $116 million since 2008 – bringing their budget to $725 million a year
• 125 extra doctors and 380 extra nurses working in public hospitals in Wellington compared to 2008
• Porirua is one of the regions we are trying a local approach to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions through better preventative health care. The Porirua Social Sector Trial sees a number of government agencies working together to improve the health of the community.
• School children in 12 primary schools in Porirua East belong to the Rheumatic Fever Prevention programme
• This month the DHB started rolling out free throat swabbing drop clinics - 7 medical centres in Porirua East and Kenepuru A&M and a dedicated clinic at the Pacific Health Service Porirua
• Investing $810,000 in the greater Wellington region to support pregnant women and new mums to understand the importance of good nutrition and physical activity for their babies and for themselves. The 'Health 4 Life' project will improve the quality and uptake of nutrition and physical activity advice given by health professionals to pregnant women, mothers of infants in the first year of life, and their families.

Nationally, the government has made growing and protecting our public health services a top priority.

Regionally, the three health boards are working closer together – and that’s the future.

And locally, we have a number of initiatives to improve the health of the community.