Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins is appalled that the National Government’s funding cuts to health could force the Piki te Ora Ki te Awakairangi Primary Health Organisation to double its fees. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s often been said that a society can be judged by how it treats those in the dawn of life, the children, those in the twilight of life, the elderly, and those in the shadows of life, the sick and the needy. On all of these measures I think we’ve got a lot of work to do. Few issues illustrate that better than the recent cuts to home help hours for our elderly residents.

Late last year my electorate offices were deluged with complaints about the way the Hutt Valley DHB had been slashing home help hours. This cost-cutting agenda is endangering the health of our older citizens and could lead to more serious illness and avoidable cost blowouts in other areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Parliament has resumed for the year and the contrast between Labour and National couldn’t be starker. During the last election campaign the National Party went up and down the country promising New Zealanders they could have everything they were getting under Labour and big fat tax cuts as a cherry on top. Recent revelations that National is intending to raise GST, send the miners into our national parks, and privatise ACC show just how hollow those promises were.

The major initiative coming out of John Key’s recent speech to Parliament was an increase in GST from 12.5% to 15%. That’s got many people worried. National claims that this rise in GST will be used to pay for tax cuts for those in the top tax bracket, namely those earning over $70,000. In the Rimutaka electorate only 7% of people fall into that category, meaning the vast majority of people will be worse off. Read the rest of this entry »

The constant cuts to home help hours being pursued by the Hutt Valley DHB are short-sighted and will lead to more health problems and budget blow-outs in the future, warns Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins. Read the rest of this entry »

New Zealand’s public health services must be some of the most restructured in the developed world. Unfortunately it now looks like another round of reorganisation is on the way. Rather than focusing on how we can do things better within the present health service, the new National-led government seem to think that having our doctors and nurses focussed on another wave or restructuring is a better way to improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Throughout the 1990s the National Party were determined to introduce a free-market system in place of the previous public health service. Elected health boards were done away with, replaced by Crown Health Enterprises (the infamously named CHEs). The Ministry of Health was broken up, with four new Regional Health Authorities given responsibility for dishing out funding to the CHEs. Far from making the health system more efficient, the then National government’s reforms did the opposite, they led to more bureaucracy and less of a focus on healthcare. Read the rest of this entry »

Murray McCully and Anne Tolley need to get their stories straight and assure Kiwis that funding for programmes like Stage Challenge, Kapa Haka, Polyfest and the Pasifika Festival will be funded next year, Labour’s Sport and Recreation spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. Read the rest of this entry »

Hutt Valley MPs Trevor Mallard and Chris Hipkins have congratulated the Hutt Valley DHB for the progress they are making on the redevelopment of their accident and emergency department and the construction of new operating theatres. The preliminary design stage has now been signed off. Read the rest of this entry »

Labour’s candidate for the Rimutaka electorate Chris Hipkins has released a ‘Top 10′ list of local priorities for his first term if elected as the local Member of Parliament. Mr Hipkins says the list gives local residents a clear idea of the sorts of issues he would work on and will give people a yardstick against which to measure his effectiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

Labour’s candidate for the Rimutaka electorate Chris Hipkins has welcomed Health Minister David Cunliffe’s announcement of a new, more integrated system for health workforce planning, noting that addressing the chronic shortage of GPs in the Hutt Valley must be an urgent priority. Read the rest of this entry »

The success of the Hutt Union Health Centre in Pomare shows that the big investment the Labour-led government has made in primary health services is paying off, Labour’s candidate for the Rimutaka electorate Chris Hipkins said today. Mr Hipkins visited the Centre on Thursday along with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard. Read the rest of this entry »