Today is Health NZ’s first birthday – and not one
health metric has improved, National’s Health spokesperson
Dr Shane Reti says.
“It has been one year since
Labour merged all New Zealand’s 20 DHBs into one mega
entity, and the transition has not been smooth. In fact,
things are much worse.
“The amount of time sick and
injured New Zealanders are waiting for health care has
increased, with first specialist appointment and surgical
wait lists hitting record highs and emergency department
wait times getting longer.
“From July 2022 until the
latest available data in April 2023, the first specialist
appointment wait list has gone from 37,239 to 56,051 – a
50 per cent increase.
“In the same period, the
surgical wait list has gone from 27,780 to 34,662 – almost
a 25 per cent increase.
“Unfortunately, it is not
possible to compare emergency department wait time data, as
Labour has reduced its reporting of it – possibly because
the last time the figures were incorrect.
“But this
is not the fault of our hard working and dedicated front
line staff. This responsibility lies solely with the Labour
Government who simply cannot deliver better outcomes for New
Zealanders.
“While Labour continues to fail New
Zealanders, National has a plan to rebuild our health
workforce, to bring back targets and increase funding each
and every year and ensure it goes straight to our
hard-working front
line.”
#Year #Health #Failure
