Health Minister Andrew Little is attempting to avoid any accountability in the Health sector by not reporting important data, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Throughout this year, emergency department wait times have been of huge public interest, given that they are some of the longest in recent memory. Media headlines have highlighted heart-wrenching stories of sick and injured New Zealanders unable to receive timely access to urgent health care.

“The Minister is under so much pressure that he has decided to stop publicly reporting emergency department wait times on the Government’s website.

“The last set of data that was published was to June 30, 2022 – nearly six month ago. This was only at the start of winter, and with the many stories that were published in the media after this period, we can expect that the numbers are much worse.

“The data is likely to show just how bad the health sector has struggled and that the Minister’s ideological health restructure has delivered nothing but a distraction for a sector in crisis.

“Under Labour’s watch they have removed lifesaving health targets, spent billions on a bureaucratic health restructure instead of the front line, and delivered some of the worst health statistics ever recorded.

“A National Government will reinstate health targets to deliver better health outcomes for New Zealand, and increase health funding every year.”

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