Health funding in this year’s Budget has increased from $14.12 billion last year to $14.65 billion this year.
This includes $346 million for new initiatives and funding increases announced in the Budget for 2013-14. The lion’s share of that new funding ($250 million a year or $1 billion over four years) goes to meet district health board cost pressures and population growth.
The increased spending will be partly funded by an estimated $40 million in “reprioritised’ funding and savings including reduced need for support of district health board deficits.
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGY
Total appropriation increases from $176 million last year to $179 million
$3.2 million a year over four years to increase numbers under the often nurse-associated Care Plus service for patients with long-term conditions
$3 million a year over four years for PHO performance incentives
$15.9 million over four years to increase the number of heart and diabetes checks nationwide.
$7.2 million over four years to double the number of nurse and GP ‘green prescriptions’ to encourage healthy lifestyles
$12.2 million over four years to “improve and accelerate” local diabetes-care programmes including enhanced diabetes nursing services
Budget sets target of one million practice nurse consultations for high need patients and 23,000 extended primary mental health consultations with a GP or practice nurse
ELECTIVE SERVICES
$12 million a year over four years for an additional 2000 elective surgery operations
$10 million a year over four years to maintain increased elective surgery volumes
TRAINING
Same health workforce postgraduate training targets currently set for 2013-14 (2400 nursing trainees) with a slight increase in health workforce training and development budget from $171.2 million to $173.5 million
CHILDREN
$1.75 million year ($6.9 over four years) to increase coverage of nurse-led B4 School checks to 80 per cent of eligible children.
$1.34 million ($6.6 million over four years) for Children’s Action Plan
No new funding in this Budget for PlunketLine and WellChild services
MENTAL HEALTH
$2.6 million this year and $5.2 million a year for following three years for a yet to be announced mothers and baby mental health initiative
$1.4 million a year over four years for pre-employment drug testing
Last year’s announced additional funding for youth mental health package starts to kick in with $900,000 this year.
DISABILITY
$12 million for first year and $10 million for next four years for paying “sleepovers” for staff
$23 million a year ($92 million over four years) to pay family care givers
Extra $15 million a year to meet general cost pressures and population growth
NATIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICES
$636,000 a year for four years for Whole of Government Radio Network
$1.87 million a year new funding for air ambulances
MATERNITY SERVICES
Reduction in total appropriations for national maternity services in 2013-14 from $147.1 million to $144.2 million with the budget predicting the number of birthing women having a lead maternity career will drop from last year’s budgeted 44,800 (73% of births) to 42,300 (less than 70% of births)
SCREENING/CANCER AWARENESS
$4.3 million spread over four years to improve care and awareness of prostate cancer
$25 million spread over four years to meet increased volume and population pressures for disease screening services
SSHW
The Budget confirms that funding has not been extended for the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit with the last $400,000 of funding allocated up to June 30 this year.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Ministry of Health funding stays static at $191 million for next year – the same as initially appropriated last year but the actual expenditure for 2012-13 is expected to be $178 million.
CONTINGENCY FUND
The Budget includes $90 million this year to respond to emerging health sector risks, provision for DHB structural deficit support, and contingency funding for Government priority health policy initiatives.
PRE-BUDGET DAY ANNOUNCEMENTS
AGED CARE and DEMENTIA SERVICES EXTRA FUNDING
$5 million a year ($20 million over four years) extra for home-based support services
$3 million a year ($12 million over four years) for dementia bed subsidies
A $2 million dementia awareness/early detection programme, $1.5 million for interRAI training and $1.2 million for dementia-related training for health care workers (a total of $4.7 million over three years)
And DHB appropriations also include an additional $33.2 million for aged-residential-care subsidies spread over four years.
RHEUMATIC FEVER
$5 million a year over four years for rheumatic fever targeted projects with more than half going to nurse-led sore throat drop-in clinics in greater Auckland and Porirua, plus awareness campaigns and a ‘healthy homes’ referral service for greater Auckland
$1.6 million over two years for rheumatic fever vaccine research
