Budget 2010: Govt puts health on life support

File photo / Amos Chapple

The Government has put health on life support with an additional $500 million a year for the next four years to keep the sector afloat.

In pre-Budget comments Finance Minister Bill English had said money would be reprioritised from other areas into key sectors such as education and health.

However, Budget figures released today show health will get $1.95 billion in operating costs over the next four years. That is just under $500 million annually - $250m less a year than the increase in last year's budget.

Of the $1.95b for new initiatives, $186m was reprioritised from within vote health. Most of that comes from cuts in administration services.

The Government was today muted on the changes - in his speech, Mr English skimmed over the health budget.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said the level of health spending would leave a "huge hole" and force DHBs to make cuts in services.

"This isn't enough for the health sector to stand still," Ms Dyson said.

Costs would increase due to the GST rise and the money allocated was hundreds of millions of dollars short of what had been estimated as necessary to maintain services, she said.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists assistant executive director Angela Belich said unions had calculated that $555 million in new spending was necessary to keep current levels of health services, but the Budget offered only half that.

"That would probably mean there will be cuts in services," Ms Belich said.

The areas which received the biggest boost were disability services with $99.8m and elective surgery with $59.5m.

The increase in spending on disability services included $25.5m for home and community support services, $3.4m for other support services, $21m for residential services for the intellectually disabled, $7.9m for supported living, $1.6m to reduce waiting times for cochlear implants and $2.7m for respite care.

An extra $6.8m would help promote design to make homes accessible to disabled people, monitor the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and fund an awareness campaign.

Disability Issues Minister Tariana Turia said the budget delivered on many of the commitments disabled people and their families had been seeking for a long time.

"These initiatives signal a significant shift in focusing on quality of life outcomes for disabled people."

The increase in elective surgery funding included $8m for breast reconstruction surgery.

Mr Ryall said the funding was the Government "building our pre-election promise" to deliver more elective operations.

"Another $59.5m over four years means more people will get surgery, and they will get it sooner than they have in the past," he said.

The funding was an example of the Government's "focus on improving priority frontline public services".

An additional $8m from vote education will be used to increased the number of places in medical training.

- NZPA