Health budget a test of Government’s commitment to public health care

“In a few days we will find out if the Government is prepared to let public health care funding slide even further or if it’s going to give our public hospitals the resources they actually need to look after the health of New Zealand’s communities,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“The Government faces a stark choice between stepping up and doing what is morally and fiscally responsible, and the alternative of letting even more people languish in pain as they try to access surgery and other treatment.”
The Government’s Budget for the coming year will be revealed this Thursday 25 May – and a pre-Budget analysis by the Council of Trade Unions and ASMS shows that the money allocated for Vote Health will need to rise significantly just to maintain the health services we already have. A much bigger increase is needed to take account of the new initiatives and additional costs the Government has already announced for the current year.

The Vote Health analysis found that:
• Money allocated for operational expenses needs to rise by $721 million (4.7%) from $15,324 million to $16,045 million simply to keep up with population and cost increases.
• In order to pay for initiatives and additional costs already announced for this year, operational funding will need to rise by an estimated $1,096 million (7.2%), which would take Health Vote to $16,420 million.
• For Vote Health to regain the spending power it had in 2009/10, and to pay for the initiatives and additional costs announced since then, it would need to increase by $2.3 billion in the 2017 Budget to $17.6 billion.
• The country’s district health boards are also overdue for a funding increase. Their share of the overall health budget needs to rise by $580 million (4.7%) to maintain the current level of DHB services and to cover population and cost increases – and more will be needed to cover the cost of additional initiatives already mapped out.

“This CTU-ASMS analysis really highlights the parlous state of funding for public health in New Zealand,” says Ian Powell.

“Our public hospitals and essential health services are so far behind the eight-ball in terms of resourcing that they need a massive multi-million-dollar top up just to keep providing what we already have.

“What’s particularly concerning is that we know there’s a huge level of unmet need in our communities so just maintaining the status quo in terms of access to services isn’t enough. The Government needs to step up and fund our public hospitals and other health services properly.”

Associate Professor Phil Bagshaw is a Christchurch surgeon who chairs the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust and has led ground-breaking research into the levels of adult unmet health need in New Zealand. He says evidence from overseas shows clearly that investing in health care is both humane and good financial sense.

“When will our Government wake up to this reality and start the reinvestment process needed to repair our under-funded and stressed public health care system?”

The full pre-Budget analysis is available on the CTU website at http://www.union.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/How-much-funding-2017.pdf.
ENDS

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