The following commentary about Ambulance Services was found on the National Party website for the 12 month period leading up to the election.

Ambulance Funding Open to Abuse

ACC has been told to look at the way it funds the ambulance service following claims it is open to abuse by providers. A report into the ambulance service by MPs says the current system creates a perverse financial incentive for providers to take patients to hospital when they do not need to go. Providers such as St John get a payment from ACC when a patient is taken to hospital, but have to foot the bill themselves or get money from the patient if they do not go to hospital. National's Jo Goodhew says the system needs to be reviewed so that patients are treated according to need, not money.

Improving ambulance services

by Jo Goodhew, Health 08 July 2008

National Party members of the Health Select Committee are supporting recommendations to make ambulances services safer.

"I'm confident the 14 recommendations made by the Health Select Committee will start addressing the concerns that single-crewed ambulances put both the patient and the ambulance personnel at risk in many provincial, rural and remote locations."

National Party Associate Health spokeswoman Jo Goodhew is referring to today's release of the findings from a select committee inquiry into the provision of ambulance services in New Zealand.

"From the work we've undertaken it is clear that ambulance volunteers play a vital part in the provision of emergency services."

Some submitters to the Select Committee said they felt that all ambulance personnel should be on the full-time pay roll, but National Party MPs don't agree.

"The volunteers need to be retained and valued alongside the salaried workforce providing emergency medical services throughout New Zealand.

"Volunteers are a strong and vital part of many communities, and as such, are an extremely valuable resource. Any move to have ambulances only crewed with a salaried workforce is bound to undermine our rural and provincial communities."

Firefighters need resources to take up ambulance slack

by Sandra Goudie, Internal Affairs 28 November 2007

Volunteer fire brigades have had a 47% increase in calls to medical emergencies since 2003 and nowhere near that increase in resources, says National's Internal Affairs spokeswoman, Sandra Goudie.

The United Fire Brigades Association of New Zealand (UFBA) revealed figures at the Health Select Committee's inquiry into ambulance services that fire brigade responses to medical emergencies increased from 3,336 in 2003 to 4,910 in 2006.

"Volunteers will never hesitate to go to an emergency whenever they are needed, but no one should expect them to be under-resourced or under-trained to respond.

"If the Fire Service expects these firefighters to fill the gaps created by a shortage of ambulance personnel, they need the training and equipment to do the job correctly."

Jonathan Coleman says: "The select committee was told that the situation is so bad that in one area, south of Christchurch, 85% of the brigade callouts are for medical rather than fire emergencies.

"It's clear that the goodwill of brigades is being stretched to breaking point as personnel, many of them volunteers, are thrown into situations for which their training does not prepare them.

"This has a number of detrimental affects. Most seriously, lives are at risk when appropriately skilled assistance is not available.

"The extra responsibility and liability could well put people off becoming volunteers."

Mrs Goudie says: "Our volunteer and rural firefighters deserve more than to be thrown into the breach without the skills, equipment, and resources needed to do the job - even if it isn't the job they signed up to do."

Wheels are spinning but ambulances going nowhere

by Dr Jonathan Coleman, Health 14 November 2007

Despite eight years of taxpayer-funded reports into ambulance services in New Zealand, ACC cannot say what the public has got for those millions of dollars, says National Party Associate Health spokesman Jonathan Coleman.

The admission came during the same hearing in which the Ministry of Health advised that despite an extra 67 fulltime staff in the past three years, there has been no improvement in response times for emergencies.

"This is bureaucracy gone mad."

Dr Coleman is commenting on today's hearings before Parliament's Health Select Committee on day one of the committee's inquiry into ambulance services.

"In 1999, the Ministry of Health and ACC produced Roadside to Bedside; in 2001 the Ministers of Health and ACC issued a directive to the ministry and the department to look at ambulance services; in 2002, ACC commissioned Putting the Patient First: a plan to empower New Zealand's ambulance sector.

"Subsequently, we've had the Ambulance Services Sustainable Funding Review, the Ambulance Sector Service Standard, the Ambulance Sector Service Standard Review, and now the Ambulance Communication Project.

"At the end of all these costly reports and reviews, all ACC can say when asked what improvements there have been to services to the public is 'we don't know'.

"The Labour Government needs to deliver more than bureaucratic reports to solve the crisis in our ambulance services, yet it doesn't appear capable of anything else," says Dr Coleman.

National supports the Health Select Committee inquiry into ambulance services.