Two District Health Boards – Otago and Southland - this week put forth a proposal which could see public hospital patients being given the option of paying for their treatment if it could not be funded through the public health system.

The existing system of delivering health services is not achieving its objectives and, in some instances, is failing badly - despite a myriad of different policies having been implemented over the yea

Capital and Coast District Health Board's $70 million blowout means that staff may not be able to be paid, and adds further strength to ACT's policy of disbanding the country's 21 District Health Boards, ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

Speech to ACT Health Policy Launch; Cnr Hobson & Davis streets, Wellington; Wednesday, October 29 2008

ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy today questioned whether the Labour-led Government could be any more transparent with its latest decision to pour an additional $13 million into the aged care sector.

ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy today pledged that, following the election, she would support a future National Health Minister in any moves undertaken to increase co-operation between the public and private health sectors.

The release of the 'Report on Patients Awaiting Cardiac Surgery: Capital and Coast District Health Board' confirms what ACT has known all along - that it is not health professionals, but the Government's mismanagement of Health that is costing lives, ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

Health Minister David Cunliffe's comments today - that he will spend an additional $50 million to increase the level of cardiac surgery being performed in New Zealand - show his complete mis-understanding of the real issues facing Health services in New Zealand, ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

The Independent Practitioner Association Council (IPAC) is correct when it says that Government primary health care funding does not acknowledge or include after-hours services - in fact, primary health care funding was ignored when the funding formula was being developed, ACT Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Heather Roy said today.

I clearly remember the day my distraught six-year-old came home from school and told me she had been demoted from the 'Sharks' reading group to the 'Dolphins' reading group - parents and children weren't supposed to know that the 'Dolphins' were two groups behind the 'Sharks', of course, but kids aren't silly and she knew.