Ryall defends surprise spot checks on hospitals

Tony Ryall. Photo / Supplied

Health Minister Tony Ryall has defended his surprise visits to hospital emergency departments, saying it is important for him to see first-hand what is happening.

Former Labour Health Minister Annette King has accused him of sneaking into hospitals "to spy on staff".

But Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell calls it a "storm in a bedpan".

Mr Ryall said that Annette King, who probably had not left her "ivory tower", might have that perspective.

"But when you are Minister of Health, part of making sure you know what is going on is making sure you are out there seeing things from a patient's perspective," he said.

"I don't think there is anything sneaky about it when people know who you are."

Mr Ryall will not say which hospitals he has been to because "they might think I am not coming back".

Nor can he be precise about how many he has visited unannounced: several, he said - three, four or five.

"If I'm in a city or a town and I've got a spare five or 10 minutes, sometimes I'll drop by the emergency department and sit quietly and see what's going on for a few minutes, maybe talk to some patients, see how long they have been waiting.

"Sometimes you find people who feel they might have been waiting a little bit longer, but what we do know is that our emergency departments are getting faster."

He said he never went into the areas where patients were being treated.

He had often been recognised and had struck up conversations with waiting patients or family members who had appreciated talking to the Minister of Health.

Mr Ryall said the longest anyone of those to whom he had spoken had been waiting for initial assessment was half an hour.

Treatment times were longer - the longest he recalled was three hours - and the Government's target was to have all patients treated within six hours.

He had also spoken to staff if they were not too busy.

TV3 reported that the reaction of emergency department staff to his practice varied from supporting it to calling it "creepy and weird".

Mr Ryall said former Labour Education Minister Chris Carter used to make unannounced visits to schools, and maybe Education Minister Anne Tolley should just drop into a classroom.

Mr Powell said what Mr Ryall was seeing was "a very limited glimpse of what happens in a hospital, and it would be unwise to draw too many conclusions from it".