Media release from Labour Spokesperson Ruth Dyson

It's hard to see how patients needing health treatment will see any benefits from the restructuring of health and the establishment of a new bureaucracy by the National Government of a new health body, Labour Health spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

"Labour is fully supportive of joint purchasing, realising efficiencies and streamlining bureaucracy, but you can achieve all of these things without setting up an entirely new bureaucratic entity," Ruth Dyson said.

"The public are already experiencing cuts up and down the country under the National Government and this new bureaucratic entity will do nothing to deliver better frontline health services for those people that need them.

"How will a new bureaucracy help people in Timaru get into their Emergency Department when the Minister of Health signed off on a cut of 5000 admissions a year?

"How will it benefit elderly Kiwis who are facing callous cuts to home support, and how will it help the people of Tairawhiti who won't be able to have an operation during a six-week surgery shut down because of cost-cutting?

"We already know from the last 12 months that the National Party's claims of moving backroom services to the frontline are nothing more than rhetoric.

"Patients needing to see a doctor will not see any benefits from today's announcement.

"This is the first step to a wholesale restructure of the health system that will not lead to more frontline health services for patients and is in fact likely to lead to increased centralisation of health care, meaning fewer health services in the regions and a reduced ability of DHBs to make decisions for their communities, "Ruth Dyson said.