Coleman flays call for inquiry

"I think we're well aware of the issues in mental health, what we're working on now is developing the long-term solutions.'' Health Minister Jonathan Coleman

He says he’s not afraid of a health select committee inquiry into struggling mental health services – Health Minister Jonathan Coleman just thinks ‘‘it would not be the best use of [the committee’s] time’’.

Responding to questions from Opposition MPS, Coleman defended the Government’s approach to mental health.

‘‘We have got a very clear approach and plan, to improving access to mental health services.’’

MPS on the committee were considering a petition which called for a full-scale inquiry into the mental health sector, but had not yet reached a decision on whether to proceed with it.

Coleman appeared before the committee yesterday to answer questions on Vote Health – the Government’s funding allocation to health services across the board in the May Budget.

A new approach was needed in mental health, and ‘‘I don’t think an inquiry is going to throw up anything we don’t already know’’.

‘‘I think we’re well aware of the issues in mental health, what we’re working on now is developing the long-term solutions,’’ Coleman said.

A recent report from the Office of the Auditor-general revealed startling details over the discharge of acute mental health patients across all district health boards, sometimes without adequate plans and, in some cases, to caravan parks because they did not have a home to go to.

Coleman said the findings were concerning but were a ‘‘snapshot in time’’ of 16 months ago and work had been carried out since.

Coleman’s appearance came at the same time the Labour Party released its own updated figures, claiming $2.3 billion had been effectively stripped from the health budget due to successive years of underfunding.

‘‘The gap is why mental health care is in crisis and patients are being discharged into caravan parks, it’s why people aren’t going to the doctor because of rising fees, and it’s why elective surgery is becoming harder to qualify for,’’ Labour health spokesman David Clark said outside the meeting.

However, he put the figure directly to Coleman during the meeting, which prompted a tit-fortat exchange, with Coleman questioning Clark’s knowledge of the health Budget. The Labour figures – crunched by consultancy group Infometrics – looked at core Crown health expenditure, rather than Vote Health.

Coleman asked Clark whether he knew what core Crown health was. Clark said he did but, with both preferring to test the other’s knowledge rather than submit to an explanation, the exchange ended in a standoff and a visiblyfrustrated Clark refusing to bite.

Coleman eventually decided to move on but not before a final political potshot.

‘‘I’ll tell you; core Crown health – I don’t think you do know – includes ACC. So you’re not comparing like with like here.’’

Including ACC funding arguably skews the data to produce a larger overall number, even though ACC is funded separately to the health system in the Budget.

Joint data released by the Council of Trade Unions and the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists pointed to a ‘‘funding cut in real terms’’ despite a commitment of $224 million to mental health in the May Budget.

‘‘When we took the figures apart to understand what the Government was going to pay for and where the extra money was, we found that it was all smoke and mirrors,’’ said CTU economist and director of policy Bill Rosenberg.

His analysis indicated publiclyfunded mental health services in 2017/18 would receive just $18m in extra funding.

‘‘That’s an increase of about 1.2 per cent, which works out to a cut in real terms. A 7.3 per cent funding increase is needed in 2017/18 just to maintain the mental health services we already have, given client numbers are increasing at about 5 per cent a year – and more money is needed if the Government wants to improve access to services.’’