Judith Collins MP
National Party Health Spokeswoman

23 August 2004

CTU should get its facts straight

"The CTU has scored an own goal in its rush to defend the Labour Government's plans to pile even more costs onto struggling District Health Boards," says National Party Health spokeswoman Judith Collins.

"CTU president Ross Wilson has wrongly accused me of 'exaggerating the predicted cost to health boards' of the Holidays Act.

"But Mr Wilson knows very well that the $26 million figure I quoted was provided by the same District Health Boards that are being forced to carry the extra costs.

"The reality is that many of the Boards do not know precisely how much more the new legislation will cost them and that should be of real concern to the Minister.

"Mr Wilson clearly does not care that Christchurch women with debilitating and distressing conditions are being struck off the waiting list.

"The CTU obviously has no problems with a system that allows someone with 'a football-sized hernia' to be dropped from the 'active review' list so long as their condition doesn't get worse.

"These are the decisions that Health Boards are being forced into making, as they attempt to deliver on the Government's bureaucratic prescription with limited funding.

"Surely even Mr Wilson must agree that money for health should be spent on real medical areas, including more doctors, more nurses and more operations - rather than spending on the ideologically driven bureaucracies introduced under Labour," says Ms Collins.

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