Nurses' pay rise serious problem for King

Friday 17 Dec 2004

Heather Roy - Press Releases - Health

ACT Health spokesman Heather Roy today said that while she welcomes the prospect of a rise in nurses' salaries, it will create a very serious problem for Health Minister Annette King who has been recently embarrassed by revelations of collapsing hospital productivity.

A recent Treasury report showed hospital output had only risen 1.5 percent but funding had increased 7 percent.

"Annette King is under serious pressure from Michael Cullen to address the fact that hospital productivity has been collapsing over the last three years as she freely throws money at the hospitals. Despite this, patients have seen little or no improvement in services.

"The hospital sector will now come under increasing pressure with an additional $380 million to be spent on the nurses' wage bill, as well as the Holidays Act adding $20 million to hospital costs.

"Annette King has completely failed to provide better hospital services for the hundreds of millions of dollars she says she has poured into the system.

"Her legacy will be the greatest uncontrolled offloading of billions of taxpayer dollars into hospitals while, at the same time, we've seen the worst collapse in productivity in the history of New Zealand's health sector," Mrs Roy said.

ENDS

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