KEY POINTS:
National has accused the Government of waving around election year "guilt" money with its announcement it will spend $160 million over four years to help more patients get elective surgery.
National health spokesman Tony Ryall also accused the Government of pinching one of its ideas.
Health Minister David Cunliffe yesterday announced 5000 more people each year would get life-improving elective surgery with an extra $35 million a year funding.
This money will also fund a new initiative, giving approximately 12,000 extra patients in primary care greater access to specialist assistance, including assessments, diagnostic testing and outpatient and community-based procedures.
A further one-off spend of $20 million over two years will be targeted at district health boards (DHBs) that have both a high level of need in their community and the capacity to deliver extra services (such as cardiac or spinal surgery).
Mr Cunliffe said the extra money would give an estimated 12,000 more patients increased access to diagnostics, specialist assessments and outpatient procedures.
He said more people were getting elective surgery already.
"In 2006, this Government invested an extra annual $60 million into elective services. By the end of that financial year, patients had received 112,507 elective procedures an increase of nearly 7000 over the previous year," Mr Cunliffe said.
"By the end of the 2007/08 financial year, DHBs are aiming to deliver services to 10,000 more people."
But Mr Ryall today told Radio New Zealand the Government was trying to deal with its "guilty conscience" after its "infamous waiting list cull when 40,000 people were dropped off hospital waiting lists in the past two years".
On a population basis, there were fewer people getting elective surgery then when Labour came to office, Mr Ryall said.
Despite National being happy to adopt a range of key Government policies such as Working for Families and KiwiSaver mark one, Mr Ryall accused the Government of pinching its policy with its use of family doctors doing more.
That part of the announcement was a "direct steal" of National's proposals in its health discussion paper, Mr Ryall said.
"We talked about the smart use of general practice to do minor surgery, specialist assessments and the ability to order immediate diagnostic tests, that's exactly the basis of the initiative that the Government's announced.
"It's a direct steal of our policy and there'll be an invoice in the post," Mr Ryall said.
The National MP also said a number of DHBs had not got any of the money from the previous electives initiative of a couple of years ago.
There was also money from initiatives of this financial year that would be unspent because DHBs were unable to meet the elective levels expected of them.
"When it comes to primary care, I think capacity is much better. They will be able to provide some additional service," he said.
- NZPA
