Call for more preventive care

Published: 10:51AM Thursday July 15, 2010

Source: ONE News

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Source: ONE News

Watch Video Public health spending (6:28)

The government is taking an "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" approach to public health, according to a public health advocate.

The government has announced anti-smoking initiatives will lose $12 million in funding over the next four years, while sexual and mental health programmes and drug and alcohol initiatives are also being hit by cost cuts.

Health Minister Tony Ryall says the cuts are about moving resources to get a better service.

"Last year, we scrapped 200 vacant positions. That freed up $20 million that could go into better services, more elective surgery, faster emergency departments for patients and that's what the government's plan is."

But Public Health Association president Gay Keating told TV ONE's Breakfast programme the amount spent on health is not keeping up with New Zealand's ageing population and more focus needs to be on prevention.

"The problem is this year there are more of us, and more of us are oldies than there were last year. And unfortunately even though government has put more tax money in, there has been less put in than the number of us oldies."

Keating says focusing on prevention will lead to savings in the long term.

"There has not been a lot of signs from this government that it is putting emphasis on prevention. This government has not carried through with an initiative of the previous minister to ask DHBs to focus on keeping people out of hospital by avoiding the avoidable hospital admissions."

She says the rise in tax on tobacco is "the most significant advance in public health this year" but the increased tax take should have been matched with more spending to help people quit.