Surgical wait lists continue to balloon at record levels with no remedy in sight, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“It has almost been a year since the Labour Government announced its ‘high powered’ task force to decrease the wait lists for surgery and specialist appointments. But recent data shows that it has failed to deliver any improvements.

“In January 2022 there were 2,487 people languishing on a surgical wait list for more than a year. By January 2023, the number increased to 6,361 people. That is a 155 per cent increase.

“The last National Government set a target to ensure patients were seen within four months. Since Labour removed those targets, wait times have completely blown out and now patients have no certainty on when they will be seen by a specialist – let alone when they will have surgery.

“Labour is losing the battle on wait lists and their only solution has been a task force. While they fail to act, the list continues to grow and more New Zealanders are left waiting in pain.

“Keeping wait lists down is a core job of the Health Minister, yet the responsibility was thrown to a working group who have only managed to deliver longer wait times.

“This Government and its Health Minister continue to deny that there is a crisis, but the dashboard is glowing red in every area of health. New Zealanders cannot get timely access to healthcare and it is only getting worse.

“A National Government will prioritise the frontline by redirecting health restructure waste and investing it in our health workforce. We would also hold ourselves accountable by publicly releasing reported health data, including wait lists and emergency department wait times.”

© Scoop Media