Grey Power Federation Health Committee

22nd May 2006

The Grey Power Federation is fully in support with National Party Health Spokesman Tony Ryall's statement when he slams Health Board "pen pushers" over the exorbitant cost they have created to Health Boards Budgets.

For a long period Grey Power has shown its concern at the unaccountability of Health funding spending and that the funding is being spent by "empire builders" in a bureaucracy that has now become out of control and the basic Health Care needs are being neglected.

We have been working on researched figures that show New Zealand has 12,000 Hospital beds and these are administered by the same number of administrators.

The duplication and fragmentation being created is excessive and out of hand.

There is clearly a need for a review on many issues, including the possibility of there being too many Health Boards, a review of the PHO strategy, an in depth review of the nearly $514 million per year spent on managers, administrators, supervisors and clerical staff, the cost of Surgical Buses, the gross wastage in prescription drugs and the never ending "bounce back" system that has become the norm between Doctors and Specialists tending to help create chaos in the waiting list arena.

There are many areas of wiser spending that are options and it must be acknowledged that the increased funding expected cannot be maintained. The Grey Power Federation representing 93,000 members will fully support improvements that will create better Health accessibility.

ENDS

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