English promises to wipe health board deficits

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

National has promised to boost spending on health by an unspecified amount to get rid of the deficits it says are threatening health services.

Leader Bill English, announcing his party's health policy in Auckland yesterday, calculated that district health board deficits could total about $500 million for the three years to next July.

"This is a financial scandal on the scale of the BNZ," he said. He asserted that it was one of the reasons Prime Minister Helen Clark had called an early election.

"National will put together a financial rescue package to pay off the deficits so that district health boards can spend annual increases on new services not past debts."

The deficits were so large, he said, that they might need to be paid off over the first term of Government, but he was unable to say how much money might be involved.

That was because the Government was withholding financial information about the boards, Mr English said.

Many boards were considering cuts to health services as they tried to comply with Government demands to reduce their deficits, he said. He cited the Waitemata board, which had proposed ending its infertility treatment contract with private practice Fertility Associates.

The money National would spend to get rid of deficits would be on top of $400 million a year of new money for health for this financial year and the next two - the same amounts which the present Government committed to spending last December.

National's health spokesman, Roger Sowry, said the money to finance the deficits would come out of the savings from scrapping the Government's superannuation fund, which is set to consume $1.3 billion this year and $2 billion next year.

Nationalsays it will largely stick with the current health structure and its mix of elected and appointed district health board members, as "further change would only undermine the sector".

But in primary healthcare, National prefers the existing set-up to the Government's primary health organisations.

In the mental health area, Mr English pledged a law review to require the involvement of patients' families in their care, and an increase in the number of beds for acute and medium-term-rehabilitation inpatients.

Health Minister Annette King said that figures for district health boards were publicly available, despite National's claims.

"On assessments we've got to date, the deficit looks as if it would be around $170 million," she said.

National had based its deficit figure "on pure fantasy".

Ms King said $120 million had been allocated to covering deficits "and the rest of the money is provided in deficit support".

Full news coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/election

Election links:
The parties, policies, voting information, and more

Ask a politician:
Send us a question, on any topic, addressed to any party leader. We'll choose the best questions to put to the leaders, and publish the answers in our election coverage.