Since Labour came to office five years ago, New Zealand has broken record after broken record in the health sector – but none of them should be celebrated, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Many New Zealanders would have seen the headlines this week detailing overcrowded and understaffed emergency departments and rising wait times, and as a result, people are needlessly dying.

“Wait times have been getting worse each year under the Labour Government, reaching some of the worst on record. Nationwide data to June 2022 showed only 76 per cent of patients are being seen in emergency departments within six hours, compared to 91 per cent when National handed over in 2017.

“This means about a quarter of vulnerable New Zealanders in need of urgent attention at an emergency department are being forced to wait longer than necessary. This is another tragedy waiting to happen.

“But the waiting doesn’t stop there. Surgical wait lists have hit a new record almost every month this year, with the number of people waiting more than four months for surgery jumping to 28,000 in August. The list keeps growing and Labour has failed to act quickly.

“The consequence of long wait times has been borne by the 81 New Zealanders waiting more than 12 months for surgery, who since May this year have been removed from the surgical list because they are now medically unfit and might never have their surgery.

“To be included on the surgical wait list, you must to be first referred by a specialist – but those wait times have blown out too. The number of people waiting more than four months to see a specialist is already up to more than 34,000.

“Instead of investing in the frontline, the Government and its Minister decided to push forward with a billion dollar bureaucratic health restructure in the middle of a pandemic that distracted the sector and added more pressure.

“No matter how the Government or the crisis-denying Health Minister tries to spin it, the health sector has some of the worst waiting times on record – nothing to be proud of after five years of constant health failure.”

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