David Clark
MP for Dunedin North
Health Spokesperson

Another day – another health crisis

News today that the emergency department at Waikato has turned 180 patients away is another crisis for the Government and its besieged health system, says Labour’s Health spokesperson David Clark.

“It’s astonishing that the Government has had to rely on the private sector to take these patients that were turned away from the hospital over the past two and a half weeks.

“However, what is even more astonishing is that these patients were given vouchers for the Anglesea clinic that had to be used within 30 minutes of being issued.

“It’s another example of how Jonathan Coleman has lost control of his portfolio and is now overseeing an appallingly under-resourced health system.

“The Waikato District Health Board argues that it has been doing this for the last four years and that this is a cost effective way of dealing with ED peaks. But to most New Zealander this sounds more like an underfunded and under resourced service.

“The Minister must fess up and admit that the system has been substantially underfunded for the past nine years. We need to invest the $2.3 billion that is missing from health.

“This ongoing deterioration of our health system has to be fixed. We need a Labour Government this coming Saturday,” says David Clark.

ENDS

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