Labour and Ayesha Verrall are reinventing history in a desperate attempt to avoid responsibility for their botched merger at Health New Zealand, National Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Make no mistake, these problems go straight back to Labour. When Labour decided to break up the DHBs and reform the health sector in the middle of a pandemic, they were destined to fail, and the situation we are in right now is proof of that.

“The deficit of $1.4 billion by the end of 2024/25 is of Labour’s doing, and just like the ferries, Te Pūkenga, Kainga Ora and many other agencies, National is left to do the clean-up job and get our country back on track.

“Our Government has had to act decisively to rein in the financial blow out at Health NZ, an entity created entirely by Labour that’s currently overspending at the rate of $130 million a month.

“This is not a matter of there not being enough funding.

“When National and Labour released their strategy for health in the 2023 election, both parties had exactly the same figure – an additional $12.57 billion for Health NZ over the forecast period.

“National has gone even further and invested a record $16.7 billion in the Budget for Health New Zealand, plus an additional $604 million for more medicines.

“Now Labour is saying that isn’t enough – so which is it?

“Our Government is committed to delivering better healthcare, which is why we have invested even more than they promised. But unlike Labour, we know spending alone is not going to deliver better healthcare. We want to have confidence that the entity responsible can ensure that investment is delivering for patients and frontline staff but because of Labour’s botched merger, we don’t have confidence that it can and that’s why we’ve taken the action we have.

“Labour allowed Health NZ back-office staff to balloon by 2,500 over six years, created up to 14 layers of bureaucracy between the CEO and patients, didn’t have a focus on health targets, and now Ayesha Verrall is falsely claiming that it’s lack of Government funding driving the problems.

“Ayesha Verrall can’t do the maths, and it seems she’s not very good at history either.

“The National-led Government is spending more on New Zealanders’ health than any Government in our country’s history.

“The timeline backs that up. Since we became Government, I’ve had to take a series of steps to mitigate the damage caused by Labour’s appalling implementation of the merger.

“I’ve taken notice, and taken action. Labour and Ayesha Verrall were incapable of either.

“This Government is committed to putting things right, for the sake of New Zealanders health.”

Timeline:

• October 2023 – HNZ’s annual report records a $1 billion deficit
• November 2023 – New government sworn in
• December 2023 – Crown Observer appointed to help address Ministerial concerns
• February 2023 – Office of the Auditor General expresses performance concerns
• February 2024 – Ministerial Advisory Committee expresses implementation concerns
• Mar 2024 – Health NZ notifies unexpected $100 million deficit for the month
• Mar 2024 – Minister Reti appoints financial expert to HNZ board
• April 2024 – Health NZ notifies another significant deficit
• June 2024 – New Chair appointed
• July 2024 – Commissioner appointed

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