A quick bullet point summary of what Budget 2014 brought for health and nursing:
- Health funding in this year’s Budget has increased from $14.65 billion last year to $15.55 billion this year
- This includes $348 million of new funding to cover cost pressures and population increases and new policy initiatives. (New initiatives are also being funded from $73.5 million of ‘reprioritised’ savings from health services funding)
- Plus $640 million of capital funding including $439 million to refinance existing loans and $200 million towards new capital projects like hospital buildings
DISTRICT HEALTH BOARDS
- About $275 million of the new funding (up from $250 million last year) is again earmarked to towards increased costs to district boards caused by inflation and population demands
ELECTIVE & OTHER SURGERY
- $25 million a year extra for elective surgery (i.e. hip and knee replacements etc)
- $2.5 million a year for extra bariatric surgery (for obesity)
- $1 million for upping kidney transplant numbers
PRIMARY HEALTH STRATEGY
- From July next year the free GP fees and prescriptions is to be extended to include all children under 13. ($30 million a year for three years has been set aside to cover this initiative.)
- $2.5 million extra a year to support rural general practices
- $3.3 million a year towards subsidising low cost doctors visits
- Funding for this year only of $1.5 million for the new graduate nurse scholarships in very low cost access (VCLA) practices.
CHILD HEALTH and PROTECTION SERVICES
- $1.6 million extra a year for national child health services i.e. Plunket and other Well Child health service providers
- One-off $16.35 million in 2014-15 for implementing Children’s Action Plans to help protect vulnerable children and young people
- Extra $13.66 million in 2014-15 for Child Youth and Family care and protection services
- $2.5 million for implementing Vulnerable Children’s Bill
PUBLIC HEALTH INITIATIVES
- $5 million new funding a year for fighting rheumatic fever including more drop-in sore throat clinics
- $10 million a year for new Healthy Families NZ initiative to encourage healthier eating and more exercise
DISABILITY SERVICES
- $24.8 million extra a year to meet cost pressures and demand for national disability support services
- $24 million a year extra for home-based support for disabled people
MENTAL HEALTH
- $5.2 million new funding a year for specialist support for sexual violence victims
- $1.5 million this year and $2.35 million a year from 2015-16 for Youth One Stop Shops
- $500,000 extra a year for mental health district inspectors
TRAINING
- Extra $1.7 million this year for postgraduate education and training of doctors rising to $7.6 million in 2017-18
- No extra health workforce training funding announced for nursing
- Training targets set for 1081 trainees in nursing entry to practice programmes and 1601 postgraduate nursing training units
CANCER TREATMENT
- Initial extra $1.2 million in 2015 but increasing to $5-6 million a year from 2015-16 for improving cancer treatment including 20 cancer support workers and six cancer centres with a specialist psychologist each
- $8 million in 2014-15 to increase the number of colonoscopies carried out for bowel cancer screening
