Shane Reti: Health Minister on govts moves to decrease hospital wait times

The Health Minister is looking ahead as reform of the health system marks its second anniversary. 

In 2022, the former 20 Distract Health Boards were amalgamated into one central agency - health New Zealand.

Health Minister Shane Reti says the previous government did not have a good implementation plan. 

 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More health promises from the government. We now have a
three year plan for the public health system. It focuses
on reducing the impact of cancer, caardia, vascular and respiratory diseases,
and diabetes. There are also five specific targets for mental
health and addiction, including eighty percent of people accessing specialists
mental health and addiction services within three weeks and training
five hundred mental health and addiction professionals every year. The

(00:20):
Health Minister, Shane Retty is with us morning. I good
to speak with you and you too, big call. You're
up for it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Absolutely. What we've done here with the government policy statement
is focused the direction for health and said very clearly
is what we do. We're going to improve life expectancy
and improve the qualitgue of life and here's how we're
going to do it timely, access to quality healthcare, workforce, infrastructure.
And then as you said, beneath that out are five percides,
five targets. That's what we do. Really clear, system can

(00:49):
focus on that, The accountabilities are clear, that's where the
good ship health is going.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Even if you load money in right now, how long
does it take to flow through on things like staffing.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
What we've seen. We've projected our targets out to twenty thirty.
But as we start to bring staff up here now
and a good example would be a Totadahomou which I
opened yesterday, we're seeing people right now who are in
their pre op We need to go to surgery in
the next hour or two. It does take an orientation
time when you bring people on board, of course, but
you bring up the workforce and within months you start
seeing improvements.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, the workforce comes from where you train them or
you bring them in.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Combination of both. The most immediate lever that you can
pull is immigration, but I'm absolutely committed to building our
own domestic pipeline. So it's a combination of both, along
with retention. We need to be able to retain those
who are here so that they're not leaking out the offshore.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
On the mental health front, and it's not your fault
because you're new to the job, but we've heard the
mental health debate for years and years and years. What's
different this time?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, what's different this time several things. First of all,
we have a dedicated minister and Minister Doocy for mental health,
an absolute focus and a passion plus a train recorded
his previous life of working in mental health. That's significantly different. Secondly,
really strong targets which you'll talk to later in the week,
that brings a real focus and energy to mental health

(02:13):
and that's quite different.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
We wish you well with it. Doctor Shane Retti, the
Minister of Health, with us this morning. For more from
the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks it'd
be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.