Nursing leaders are both welcoming and wary of a health Budget that includes new money and initiatives as well as “reprioritisations” of unspent money.
Jenny Carryer, executive director of the College of Nurses, said health getting extra money in a “nil budget” was “a bonus”.
“You’ve got to be grateful for what you get at the moment,” she said.
Geoff Annals, chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, said Vote Health had done relatively well and there were some “bright spots” for health.
But both he and Carryer said it was difficult to see from the fine print where all of the $430 million extra this year announced by Health Minister Tony Ryall was going to be found and spent.
Annals said analysis by Combine Trade Unionist economist, Bill Rosenberg, showed $358 million in extra money to health, which Rosenberg estimated was $230 million short on what was needed to meet demand and the new initiatives announced.
He believed the possible shortfall would be found in cuts to services, productivity gains, and possibly, further increases in user charges after testing the public appetite with the increased prescription charges.
Annals predicted a tough year for the health sector and for the poor and chronically unwell as the general budget had not addressed the wider social determinants of health such as adequate housing and jobs.
Carryer said the areas the Government needed to be congratulated on was funding for alcohol and drug counselling in prisons, which she saw as a very positive initiative.
She noted that there was little new investment in the primary health care strategy apart from extra funding for training extra GPs.
“I think that the extra GP training funding is obviously valuable but it’s disappointing there is not a similar investment being made in nurse practitioners.”
This was echoed by Deborah Davies, a College of Primary Health Care Nurses spokeswoman, who said she was disappointed that there was no direct funding to develop advanced nursing roles in primary health.
On the positive side, she said the budget had increased funding in a range of initiatives that were primary health care driven, and she was heartened by the focus on vulnerable young and old people. She said funding for free after-hour visits for under-six-year-olds would enhance the care available to children.
Annals said bright spots for health included the investment in school-based health services and well child care, the better co-ordination of cancer care, and beginning to address unhealthy housing.
Daryle Deering, president of the College of Mental Health Nurses, saw the extra funding for vulnerable youth, suicide prevention initiatives, and money for alcohol and drug rehabilitation in prison as two of the positives for mental health in the Budget.
She added that there also needed to be a pathway support to integrate prisoners back into society successfully to stop relapse. Also of concern to her was the ongoing reprioritising of funding for health.
The Rural General Practice Network saw the Budget has providing no big gains or losses for the rural health sector. Network chair Dr Jo Scott-Jones expressed disappointment that the Network’s appeal for extending the Voluntary Bonding Scheme to include rural primary health care nursing as a specialty under the scheme had not been successful.
