The Health Minister has published another error – this time in the Budget, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“In another data embarrassment for the Health Minister, the Ministry of Health has confirmed that incorrect performance measures in the Budget were ‘inadvertently listed’.

“CT scans, MRI scans, cardiac surgery and emergency department wait times were measures discontinued in the Budget. But two pages later they ‘inadvertently’ appear again and are reported as 100% perfect to target, that is, there are no wait times.

“It’s embarrassing for Labour that the Budget document is wrong. This is just another case of incorrect information being published by the Health Minister.

“Recently it was revealed that HealthNZ published incorrect emergency department wait times, with some areas reporting near perfect figures, resulting in all the data being taken down for weeks.

“The health sector is in crisis, yet the Minister doesn’t seem to have any accurate information to go on. The Minister must now clarify if there is anything else wrong in her Vote Health Budget 2023.

“National would bring back targets and focus on frontline delivery. The Minister should just accept her error and at least commit to emergency department wait times as a performance measure and hold herself accountable to New Zealanders.”

© Scoop Media