Dr Lynda Scott National Health Spokeswoman

9 February 2004

Millions of health dollars wasted on administration

Millions of health dollars are being wasted on administration work that would be better done by private companies, says National's Health spokeswoman Lynda Scott.

Auckland District Health Board chairman Wayne Brown says $7 million could be saved in Auckland alone if the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHB's together privately contracted out a portion of their administration work.

"When cancer patients are being forced to go to Australia for treatment, it's blatantly obvious frontline services, not administration, should be the key priority for precious health dollars," says Dr Scott.

"Instead we have ideologically driven DHB's with their heads in the sand, refusing to even consider the option of outsourcing some administration work.

Dr Scott says patients are missing out on crucial health care while unnecessary bureaucracy continues to weigh the health system down.

"If the Government really cared about health outcomes it would be taking every opportunity to remove that load."

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