Mental health and addiction targets and a possible alcohol law reform are among the steps included in the Government's long-term healthcare plan.
The Government unveiled their three-year plan for the public health system, designed to improve access, timeliness, quality, workforce and infrastructure.
NZ Herald political reporter Adam Pearse unpacks the plausibility of these targets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Time to talk politics now and I'm joined by New
Zealand Herald political reporter Adam Pers Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The government's quarterly Action Plan ends today and we'll have
a quick talk about that in a moment and see
how many boxes have been ticked. But a part of
this is the issue with a new Government policy statement
on health setting the government's priorities for the health system
for the next three years. I know that you have
covered this off in the New Zealand Herald today in
great depth, wondering if you could just sort of summarize
(00:43):
it for us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yes, Well, it's essentially how the government is going to
spend about eighty five billion dollars over the next three years,
which is of course quite a bit of money. It's
one of their biggest spends obviously in health, so key
or central to the GPS that was released today as
some new mental health and addiction targets. Obviously had some
(01:07):
health targets around e d wait times and faster cancer access. However,
we do have some mental health ones today, so they
include eighty percent of people accessing specialists and primary mental
health services being seen within three weeks, which is pretty
quick obviously something that's not happening at the moment. It's
also around work also training five hundred mental health and
(01:29):
addiction professionals each year and also a focus on prevention
and early interventions, so kind of not ambulance at the
bottom of the cliffs stuff, so allocating twenty five percent
of mental health and addiction investment towards that prevention and
early intervention measures. So we were unable to talk with
Mental Health Minister Matt Dercy. However, did get a chance
(01:51):
to have a chat with the Health Minister, doctor san Nbertzi,
and he said that while they were ambitious, it wasn't
These targets wouldn't have been suggested if they didn't think
that they could hit them. So it'll be a big effort.
It'll take quite a bit of that spin to be
able to achieve them. But I know that we many
listeners knowing who know that mental health services in this
country are pretty poor and need a lot of improvement.
(02:14):
So he is hoping that they can achieve them.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, it all sounds good. Just a quick question I
don't know if they've released the details on this. Eighty
percent of people accessing specialist mental health and addiction services
being seen within three weeks. That's great, but you need
to then be assessed and then treated.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That's not necessarily saying that treatment's going to start, is it.
It's basically means you're in the system, you're going to
be cessed, but they can't guarantee that they're going to
be able to actually start treatment with you.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
No, no, And so that's the other thing, right, it's
about following on from this. I can imagine the government
will be saying, Loo, look, we just need to get
people seen first of all. If they can get that,
then it goes on to treatment. Obviously. You know they've
got measures like their twenty four million into Gumboot Friday,
which is about seeing particularly young people getting assessed and
(03:08):
hopefully going along that treatment journey. But yeah, as I say,
there'll be many listeners out there who will know that
getting treatment for mental health issues, let alone just getting seen,
takes much much too long.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
We'll keep an eye on that. Adam, you've been in
Gisbone most of this week. Why our mayor wants a
government inquiry tell us about this.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, it's been really sad to see, you know again
heavy and strong weather impacting the lights of wild Or
and along the East coast. I mean, being from Hawks Bay,
you know, and after cyclone Gabriel, it's pretty tough to see,
you know, hundreds of people being displaced from their homes
and wild All has been pretty hard in particular. I
(03:47):
mean I've been in Gisbon since since about Wednesday and
it's it almost felt like it was just going to
never stop raining. And that was you know, that was
even a couple of days after the kind of heavy
rain started, so the trauma is still very fresh for people.
I think we saw that as Emergency Minister Mark Mitchell
was going around talking to people particularly and wide Or.
You know, people are breaking down and tears, people getting
(04:08):
angry about why this was still happening and the government
wasn't intervening. I know there's there's some claims that that
council have failed in terms of clearing a sandbar before
the before the rain hit. But anyway, I know that
Mark Mintwell has said that they'll discuss the matter at
Cabinet on Monday, and it's likely you know, they might
be able to find a few million dollars where they'll
(04:29):
be able to help the clean up and also look
at a bit of an inquiry. I can imagine it
would be probably more short and sharp rather than a
full government inquiry that Craig Little is calling for. However,
it will be something that obviously will look to help
the people are wide or along the East coast. But
you know, again, it's just another thing that they've had
to deal with, you know, Cyclone Gabriel this, you know
(04:51):
the amount of times that they are having to deal
with it and things are still not getting fox. It's
just adding to the frustration.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And if we go back to the government's quarterly Action Plan,
will the Prime Minister be happy with what he's achieved,
what the team's achieved.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think if there's one thing you
can guarantee about Prime Minister of Christopher Luxem that were
usually be very positive about his government's actions and how
he's been able to deliver on them. He's all about
the deliverables and the outcomes. It will be interesting to
see how many of the targets I suppose that the
items and the Q two plan we have actually tacked off,
(05:29):
it's unclear whether we've got through all of them. But
there's also some of those items aren't ones that we
would necessarily hear about. You know, some of the items
there are about taking decisions on things like renewable energy
generation and plans for housing growth, so we haven't heard
announcements on those yet. But you know, it's possible that
cabinet has taken decisions, but we just haven't heard about
(05:53):
it yet. So I understand that we won't hear a
lot about that today from Luxon. He'll be speaking this morning,
likely to be talking about the changes that are coming
in tomorrow, so the screening at your origional fuel tax
which will take eleven point five cents off per leader
for auckland Is, and also the introduction of Family Boost
(06:14):
early childcare education tax rebate increases the paper, and he'll leave.
He'll be looking to show how that's going to ease
the cost of living. However, it sounds like Monday's postcare
press conference will all be about Q two, what they've achieved,
if there's any that they haven't, there's still some that
are ongoing. So yeah, I'd advised listeners to keep in
touch and to make sure that they're listening on Monday
(06:37):
afternoon to see how Q two has actually gone.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Thank you so much, Adam, and if you'd like more
information on the health GPS, you'll be able to find
Adam's article at New Zealand Herald dot co dot nz.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Time to talk politics now and I'm joined by New
Zealand Herald political reporter Adam Pers Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The government's quarterly Action Plan ends today and we'll have
a quick talk about that in a moment and see
how many boxes have been ticked. But a part of
this is the issue with a new Government policy statement
on health setting the government's priorities for the health system
for the next three years. I know that you have
covered this off in the New Zealand Herald today in
great depth, wondering if you could just sort of summarize
(00:43):
it for us a little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yes, Well, it's essentially how the government is going to
spend about eighty five billion dollars over the next three years,
which is of course quite a bit of money. It's
one of their biggest spends obviously in health, so key
or central to the GPS that was released today as
some new mental health and addiction targets. Obviously had some
(01:07):
health targets around e d wait times and faster cancer access. However,
we do have some mental health ones today, so they
include eighty percent of people accessing specialists and primary mental
health services being seen within three weeks, which is pretty
quick obviously something that's not happening at the moment. It's
also around work also training five hundred mental health and
(01:29):
addiction professionals each year and also a focus on prevention
and early interventions, so kind of not ambulance at the
bottom of the cliffs stuff, so allocating twenty five percent
of mental health and addiction investment towards that prevention and
early intervention measures. So we were unable to talk with
Mental Health Minister Matt Dercy. However, did get a chance
(01:51):
to have a chat with the Health Minister, doctor san Nbertzi,
and he said that while they were ambitious, it wasn't
These targets wouldn't have been suggested if they didn't think
that they could hit them. So it'll be a big effort.
It'll take quite a bit of that spin to be
able to achieve them. But I know that we many
listeners knowing who know that mental health services in this
country are pretty poor and need a lot of improvement.
(02:14):
So he is hoping that they can achieve them.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, it all sounds good. Just a quick question I
don't know if they've released the details on this. Eighty
percent of people accessing specialist mental health and addiction services
being seen within three weeks. That's great, but you need
to then be assessed and then treated.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That's not necessarily saying that treatment's going to start, is it.
It's basically means you're in the system, you're going to
be cessed, but they can't guarantee that they're going to
be able to actually start treatment with you.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
No, no, And so that's the other thing, right, it's
about following on from this. I can imagine the government
will be saying, Loo, look, we just need to get
people seen first of all. If they can get that,
then it goes on to treatment. Obviously. You know they've
got measures like their twenty four million into Gumboot Friday,
which is about seeing particularly young people getting assessed and
(03:08):
hopefully going along that treatment journey. But yeah, as I say,
there'll be many listeners out there who will know that
getting treatment for mental health issues, let alone just getting seen,
takes much much too long.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
We'll keep an eye on that. Adam, you've been in
Gisbone most of this week. Why our mayor wants a
government inquiry tell us about this.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, it's been really sad to see, you know again
heavy and strong weather impacting the lights of wild Or
and along the East coast. I mean, being from Hawks Bay,
you know, and after cyclone Gabriel, it's pretty tough to see,
you know, hundreds of people being displaced from their homes
and wild All has been pretty hard in particular. I
(03:47):
mean I've been in Gisbon since since about Wednesday and
it's it almost felt like it was just going to
never stop raining. And that was you know, that was
even a couple of days after the kind of heavy
rain started, so the trauma is still very fresh for people.
I think we saw that as Emergency Minister Mark Mitchell
was going around talking to people particularly and wide Or.
You know, people are breaking down and tears, people getting
(04:08):
angry about why this was still happening and the government
wasn't intervening. I know there's there's some claims that that
council have failed in terms of clearing a sandbar before
the before the rain hit. But anyway, I know that
Mark Mintwell has said that they'll discuss the matter at
Cabinet on Monday, and it's likely you know, they might
be able to find a few million dollars where they'll
(04:29):
be able to help the clean up and also look
at a bit of an inquiry. I can imagine it
would be probably more short and sharp rather than a
full government inquiry that Craig Little is calling for. However,
it will be something that obviously will look to help
the people are wide or along the East coast. But
you know, again, it's just another thing that they've had
to deal with, you know, Cyclone Gabriel this, you know
(04:51):
the amount of times that they are having to deal
with it and things are still not getting fox. It's
just adding to the frustration.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And if we go back to the government's quarterly Action Plan,
will the Prime Minister be happy with what he's achieved,
what the team's achieved.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think if there's one thing you
can guarantee about Prime Minister of Christopher Luxem that were
usually be very positive about his government's actions and how
he's been able to deliver on them. He's all about
the deliverables and the outcomes. It will be interesting to
see how many of the targets I suppose that the
items and the Q two plan we have actually tacked off,
(05:29):
it's unclear whether we've got through all of them. But
there's also some of those items aren't ones that we
would necessarily hear about. You know, some of the items
there are about taking decisions on things like renewable energy
generation and plans for housing growth, so we haven't heard
announcements on those yet. But you know, it's possible that
cabinet has taken decisions, but we just haven't heard about
(05:53):
it yet. So I understand that we won't hear a
lot about that today from Luxon. He'll be speaking this morning,
likely to be talking about the changes that are coming
in tomorrow, so the screening at your origional fuel tax
which will take eleven point five cents off per leader
for auckland Is, and also the introduction of Family Boost
(06:14):
early childcare education tax rebate increases the paper, and he'll leave.
He'll be looking to show how that's going to ease
the cost of living. However, it sounds like Monday's postcare
press conference will all be about Q two, what they've achieved,
if there's any that they haven't, there's still some that
are ongoing. So yeah, I'd advised listeners to keep in
touch and to make sure that they're listening on Monday
(06:37):
afternoon to see how Q two has actually gone.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Thank you so much, Adam, and if you'd like more
information on the health GPS, you'll be able to find
Adam's article at New Zealand Herald dot co dot nz.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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