feedback is positive, but there is also the challenges, too,
and the Government is happy to engage
those. Thank you.
Government is happy to engage those. Thank you. Poto Williams. Thank
you, Mr Speaker. I want to remind the
House what we're actually
debating here this afternoon. What
we're debating is basically an error
in the appropriations documents
that were presented to
this House at Budget time. That's what we're
debating. We're
debating. We're debating the responsibility of the Health
Minister to actually get
his appropriations correct
appropriations correct when he presents them to the House. Now,
when he presented to the health
select committee, of course, none of
this actually came up
for discussion. We're only just finding
that out now in recent
days that there was an error made, and the
Ministry of Health, in response to
that error, said to the
error that we've made, we won't require you to
give that appropriation back to us, we
won't
behold, we get a completely different story, a
behold, we get a completely
this minister and he comes into this House, the minister, in his usual
arrogant and dismissive way
and
at the rugby on Saturday, they don't understand the
understand the mechanism that we use to fund the health
system, but they sure as heck understand how
difficult it is to get any decent
health services under that arrogant,
dismissive minister, and I for
one am saying to that minister
dismissive minister, and I for one
you may say it makes no material impact in terms of
you may say it makes no material impact in terms of your
Budget, but it certainly makes a material impact
in terms of the people who receive
health services. I want to refer
to a specific set of issues, and that
is what happens with mental health
in Canterbury. What
happens with mental health in
in Canterbury. What happens with
the situation is pretty well known to everybody, we've been
talking about it for some years now. It's
widely discussed, it's widely
known and agreed that we have a problem
with mental health in
not only Canterbury, across the country, but
we have some
specific issues in Canterbury and we know that,
prior to this Budget, our DHB was
talking about a
to this Budget, our DHB was talking
health support in our DHB. Money that had to come from other
services to bolster up the support that
our community needs around
its mental health,
community needs around its mental
above and beyond to say that actually mental health services
in Canterbury
Canterbury are probably at crisis point, that we're getting clinicians
and staff telling us of
the difficulty they have
in supporting people around their mental health
issues. But not only
people around their mental health
New Zealand are expressing deep concern at how people are unable
New Zealand are expressing deep concern at how people are unable to,
because
concern at how people are unable to,
of resors urces access services for their mental health. And
we're talking about vulnerable
people in Canterbury and I want to refer
to some articles and
reports that have come out in recent months. So
Kate Broughton reported in May
that the workload associated
workload associated with high numbers of patients under care
is putting significant pressure on
clinical staff and
compromising quality. Every month,
some adult patient slept in other wards
there were not enough beds to accommodate them and children
and adolescents assessed as having less
urgent cases were
waiting on average four months for a
second appointment. So children and
adolescents who are
experiencing mental unwellness are waiting
for four months
four months to get a second appointment. That is more
than disgraceful, but there's more. The
PM's own
PM's own youth mental health project, which came out in December,
the reports to
project, which came out in December,
this year and showed that there were six areas assessed across the
country, but that Christchurch
Youth,
Youth, east Christchurch youth were at the most risk. So youth
in Christchurch's
Christchurch's eastern suburbs are more likely to have
Christchurch's eastern suburbs are
suffered anxiety or low depression, suffered
suffered anxiety or low depression,
years of age waiting more than three weeks to get the support they need.
Kids under the age of 12 have to
wait three weeks to get
mental health support.
wait three weeks to get mental health support. And this is another
year, police callouts for attempted suicides rose
year, police callouts for attempted
in people entering mental health services. Rural mental health
presentations were
services. Rural mental health
health presentations have rizing 104
the minister stands in the House and says that, yes, the
people of Rotoroa at the rugby may
not have
funding is about, no, they may not understand the mechanism, but they
sure as heck understand
what it means to them as people who
are trying to access health
services. Now, I want to give you a couple
of stories from my own constituency,
from my
from my own electorate, because I get people coming to me to intervene
on their behalf to try
and access health services. I
have a story about a
health services. I have a story
since December, has attempted suicide three times.
since December, has attempted suicide three times. She can't get
an appointment for an assessment
for at least two months. She's a
young woman, she has got her life ahead of
her, she's
her, she's actually working, and when she is in a low mood,
that's when she needs support. When
she is starting to
starting to feel that depression coming on, that's when she needs
the support. Not to wait eight weeks for
somebody to give her an appointment.
She has had to come into the
MP's office to try and get
me to intervene with
intervene with health services to get her an appointment. Now, it's
lucky that I have some connections
with mental health services in
Canterbury and have been able
to effect an appointment for her within
a few days, but she was canny
and came and saw me and tried to
get some help. What happens to
all of those other young
people who don't know
those other young people who don't
the MP to intervene on her behalf to get an appointment. Someone
who has suicided three times
suicide three times since December. I also want to talk
about another constituent of mine. His mother has
come to see me on several occasions,
we've been working on this for
a while and in fact
this case is one that I've passed to the Minister for
Disability Issues, when she can
stop looking at the harbour, to actually
take some initiative over. A mother
who has a severely autistic child,
who is assessed as requiring 36
hours of support each week, has
only ever received in the region of
hours' support, up until December, where he has been
receiving none. Now, his mother has had
to care for that boy because he has not had
the support
support he requires. She subsequently had
subsequently had a stroke.
his mother is becoming so unwell that she can't
care for him because she can't access the support
she needs for him. When that minister
stands in the House and
says that the people of New Zealand don't
understand the
the people of New Zealand don't
heck understand the impact on them when they're trying to access
health services. I've had people come
to me to intervene, to get them back
on the waiting list, for knee
operations. People who are contributing to the workforce,
who actually need to get their
knees repair, so that they can continue
to work, and don't we
want people to
don't want them accessing sickness benefits because they can't
work because of their knees. We actually
want them to work. So
people are coming to their MPs to get
support to get on to the
waiting lists, because this
because this Government is saying that you don't need to
throw more money at it. Actually,
in some cases, you do, because it's not the
issue that we
haven't got the capacity to do the work in
staff to do the work in Canterbury. And I have to say, this is not
just an issue about funding
And I have to say, this is not just
actually about a matter of trust and the worthiness of this
Government to govern. And in recent weeks, we've
had some really
disturbing occurrences happen. We've
had Alfred Ngaro threatening the community and
voluntary sector. We've had
Ngaro threatening the community and voluntary sector. We've had Nicky
Wagner completely dismissive of
disability issues and disability
organisations. We've had
disability issues and disability organisations. We've had what
can only be described
organisations. We've had what can
terms of what has happened down in Cluther, Southland and I have to
say there is one thing
watching. Order! The member's time has expired and I think she
has gone even further off the point at the
end. Dr Shane Reti. Thank
you, Mr Speaker. We're acknowledging that
there has been an administrative
error. We're acknowledging
that and what I want to talk to is I want to
talk about what is
being delivered and what will
be delivered regardless of
regardless of that administrative error and I want to talk about it
in several domains. I want to talk
about access, I want to talk about
actually doing health stuff,
and then I want to
talk about our workforce and how, regardless of
this administrative error,
we can still