Health
United Future will build a health system that promotes healthy living and excellence in the delivery of medical treatment. We believe that public health begins in the community and in each family. By supporting the communities and families within New Zealand, rather than yet another round of reforms, United Future will promote healthy living. A healthy lifestyle programme is central to all our policies for healthy families and healthy communities. We believe in preventative strategies including education, immunisation, availability of services, the need for healthy eating, exercise and balanced lifestyles, and a strong emphasis on alcohol and drug abuse prevention.
Child and Youth Policy
United Future believes that all children deserve the best start in life. Unfortunately many children are not accorded this right. We will work to ensure that all children have access to the health professionals and services they need. Investing resources in these early years will result in far less costs to our society in later years.
United Future will:
- Target young children's healthcare, by concentrating on the overall health of mothers before and after birth and ensuring high quality care and support, including home visits
- Fund Plunket to ensure all children receive the recommended eight well child health checks in the first five years.
- Establish new health clinics within family service centres, to provide comprehensive health screening programmes.
- Establish health clinics in schools where medical and counselling professionals will provide specialist services and support young people in need
- Promote immunisation through home-visits, community welfare organisations and school-based programmes.
- Expand the current vision and hearing tests in schools to include years 1, 3, 5 and 7.
- Increase funding for early identification of children with special needs and disabilities with targeted systematic, intensive and high quality interventions.
- Promote greater preventative and basic restorative dental care in the young and at-risk groups.
- Promote a strong anti-drugs education programme in our schools as well as a greater understanding of a healthy lifestyle including eating and exercise.
Adult Health
A healthy population is essential to the economic prosperity and social well being of our families, communities and our nation. United Future recognises the need to provide quality healthcare services for people who are ill or who have disabilities. We believe that targeted health promotion and preventative strategies must be the government's highest health investment priority.
United Future will:
- Increase support for mothers before and after birth, ensuring high quality care and support including home visits by Plunket.
- Ensure the issue of access to services in rural communities is addressed by establishing an independent commission of inquiry charged with developing a rural health strategy built around families and local communities. Many rural communities feel that their health and hospital services have been unfairly reduced. Many rural communities are increasingly fearful as they watch health providers relocate further and further away. United Future will ensure the issue of access to services in rural communities is addressed
- Introduce a more holistic approach to mental heath. Encourage government agencies to work together on early intervention, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mental health patients.
- Develop the Mental Health Commission's role in creating a long-term strategic plan. A balance has to be struck between home-based, inpatient care and the use of community sanctuaries to prevent people becoming a danger to themselves and society
- Establish a National Cancer control strategy to co-ordinate and monitor new registrations, treatments, research, health promotion and public education programmes.
- Support effectively targeted anti-smoking, cervical, breast cancer and osteoporosis screening programmes.
- Develop more effective campaigns to reduce the use of illegal substances and provide comprehensive support to users in order to reduce the risk to themselves, their families and the community.
- Ensure that there are sufficient community nurses and other welfare agencies so that people can be treated at home where possible.
- Provide better incentives for the nursing, rehabilitation and treatment of the elderly in non-medical institutions, such as rest homes, at home and in retirement villages, including a review of asset testing rules.
- Review the role and operations of Pharmac to ensure that not only are pharmaceuticals made available at the most competitive price, but also that the interests of individual patients are taken into account when funding decisions are made.
- Ensure hospices are properly funded so that proper care and death with dignity is achieved, and not promote an argument for euthanasia that ceases to value their lives.
Healthy New Zealand Strategy: Providing Health Services
New Zealanders are frustrated with their health system and the continual structural changes in the public sector. They know that professionals in the health service have excellent abilities and skills, yet are held back by an inadequate system. The health sector has experienced five funding restructures in just over ten years and it is patients, health professionals and communities who suffer from these constant bureaucratic changes.
Finding the Best Care for the Best Price
United Future advocates a system, which utilises both the public and private health systems and delivers the best available healthcare to New Zealanders from both systems. We say that the healthcare agency (public or private) that can provide healthcare most efficiently and for the least tax dollars should be awarded the job. We believe both government-owned health care providers and privately-owned business should compete for government health contracts. The contract 'bids' of healthcare providers will then be carefully reviewed and the best bid based on both cost efficiency and medical competency will be chosen.
Finding the Extra Funding We Need
Funding will be boosted by ensuring that the tax revenues gained by such health-impacting products as tobacco and alcohol are fully utilised to recover the true cost of their own use on our health budget.
Standards in Health Care
United Future will:
- Ensure Ministerial appointments to District Health Boards include representatives of ordinary families and those with an understanding of the many subgroups within a community and/or a health or medical background.
- Commit to publicly funding 80% of primary health expenditure
- Support the concept of a public hospital model and ensure that the Public Health Service assumes the key role in the provision of vital health services, such as complex surgery and high technological operations and procedures.
- Define management codes of practice and proper consultation procedures between management and medical professionals.
- Insist that total quality management systems (TQM) be introduced to public hospitals
- Ensure that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, together with the Immigration Service, acts as the final arbiter of the standard of overseas medical qualifications. It is essential that this issue is resolved to ensure qualified medical professionals can contribute to New Zealand in a constructive way as soon as practicable
United Future Parliamentary Office: Bowen House, Lambton Quay, Wellington
Email: Phone: (04) 471 9890
|