Ministry of Health welcomes State Services Commission report

Media Release

22 July 2005

Ministry of Health welcomes State Services Commission report

The Ministry of Health has already improved systems and managerial processes around responding to Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and will continue to work on further improvements.

Director-General of Health Dr Karen Poutasi said she was pleased to see the State Services Commission (SSC) review released today had found that the Ministry's PQ systems and processes were largely adequate to answer most PQ inquiries.

The Ministry handles large volumes of PQs, answering 1414 in 2003/04 and 1993 in 2004/05.

Dr Poutasi said the SSC review confirms the Ministry has improved its processes around PQs.

``We've recognised weaknesses in our systems and have already addressed these,'' Dr Poutasi said.

``This includes changing our PQ tracking system to make sure all PQs remain live in the system and are recorded as overdue even where an interim reply has been lodged. PQs with interim reply status are now being reviewed daily by managers and a list of all PQs in progress are now provided to the Ministry's executive team and the Minister of Health weekly. This will help us monitor the progress of complex PQs.

``We take our core government processes such as providing timely and accurate information in response to PQs seriously, and will continue to implement quality control measures wherever appropriate. To this end, we will provide an update on the success of our initiatives in another three months.''

For further information, contact:
Marama Ellis
Media advisor
Ministry of Health
DDI: 04 496-2115
Mobile: 021 802 622
email marama_ellis@moh.govt.nz

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