Cunliffe says no crisis but pays $93m on locums
Hon Tony Ryall MP National Party Health spokesman
4 May
2008 < Docs strike: Cunliffe
says no crisis but pays $93m on locums The thousands of
patients missing treatment through this week's junior doctor
strike can blame the Health Minister for their cancelled
operations and specialist appointments, says National Party
Health spokesman Tony Ryall. "David Cunliffe has been
sitting on his hands, denying there's a problem, yet he's
been paying close to $100 million to fill huge gaps in the
hospital workforce. He needs to fix the strike or fix the
system. "And all the while, innocent patients are bearing
the brunt of his neglect. "This Minister is failing to
deal with the root cause of this endless conflict with
junior doctors - the health workforce crisis right across
the country. "On one hand, David Cunliffe says there is no
workforce crisis, but on the other, he paid $93 million last
year for junior and senior doctor locums to fill a huge
number of vacancies. "He needs to realise that hospitals
don't need locums if they have enough staff. You can't run a
decent health system on temporary staffing." Information
from the Ministry of Health shows that DHBs last year paid
$93 million for locum doctors to fill vacancies, almost
double the $48 million paid in calendar year 2002. It is
expected this figure will blow out to more than $100 million
this financial year. Locum use has more than trebled, for
example, at Wairarapa DHB, the home of the DHBs' lead
adviser on workforce issues. Locum use has more than doubled
at half the country's hospitals.
"There are huge staff
shortages - from midwives, to mental health, to GPs, to
hospital doctors - yet Mr Cunliffe and his failed
predecessors have done nothing other than call for more
reports and more committees." National's health
discussion paper, 'Better, Sooner, More Convenient',
proposes a number of measures to start tackling the health
workforce crisis. They include moving to medical training
self-sufficiency, investigating bonding and student-loan
write-offs for health professionals working in hard-to-staff
areas, lowering personal taxes, and re-engaging doctors and
nurses in the running of the
health. ENDS