Reports of Waikato Hospital and its emergency department being severely understaffed and unable to provide adequate care to patients begs the question why it is not part of the Government’s eight emergency department hot spots to receive extra attention, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“This morning The Waikato Times reported that Waikato Hospital – one of the country’s largest – was short 40 nurses for one shift. That is a shocking revelation.

“On top of the hospital facing shortages, the Health Minster is no longer able to provide a breakdown of staff vacancies in emergency departments, so we don’t know how bad this issue really is.

“This is unbelievable from a Labour government who has spent half a billion dollars on bureaucratic health restructuring to centralise information, yet can no longer provide key data that was able to be supplied in the old DHB model.

“What more must happen in the health sector for the Government and its minister to acknowledge that there is a health crisis happening under their watch?

“Just last week the Prime Minister said that the health sector was in better shape than it was three years ago. I fail to see how serious staff shortages and record high waiting lists for first specialist appointments, surgery and emergency departments are a sign of an improving health sector. They all point to a sector in crisis.

“The Health Minister must clarify her refusal to not include Waikato Hospital emergency department as one of the eight hot spots who will be provided with extra attention. The hospital is clearly struggling with staffing shortages and reports of ambulances being diverted to other medical centres.

“This Labour Government has failed the health sector at every hurdle. They failed to act quickly by putting nurses and other key health professions on a fast tracked immigration list, and have put all the health budget, attention and resources on a bureaucratic health restructure instead of the front line.

“A National Government would have opened up New Zealand’s immigration settings for health workers more than a year ago to help ease the pressure of the workforce shortages the health sector has been facing for years. We will also redirect health restructure waste and invest it in our frontline.”

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