National has scored a victory for patients securing a law change over-turning the Government's plans to water down legislation covering inquiries into health mishaps, National Health spokesperson Wyatt Creech said today.

"Annette King's plans for inquiries as set out in the New Zealand Health and Disability Bill did not go far enough.

"The Health Minister had removed the long standing provisions in the Health Act relating to inquiries into health problems and mishaps.

"The changes proposed by the Government meant the Minister would not have been able to commission the inquiry into the Gisborne cervical cancer debacle.

"After lobbying from National the Government has agreed to change the inquiry provisions and beef them up.

"We have managed to get the inquiry provisions toughened up."

A printable formatted copy of this press release will be available on http://www.national.org.nz along with an archive of previous releases.

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