In the blue corner

New Zealand is in a health crisis. Comments on my Facebook page last week are a testament to that, with people sharing harrowing stories about their recent experiences in New Zealand hospitals. One woman said that doctors and nurses are so run off their feet that patients are forced to leave and go and see their GP or come back later if the pain gets worse.

Another man said that he waited nine hours in the emergency department of Wellington Hospital. These are real stories happening to real New Zealanders.

Yet, Andrew Little seems adamant that we are not in a health crisis and that our current system is ‘‘coping’’.

The Government have been so focused on restructuring the health system during a global pandemic that they have completely lost touch with the reality of what sick or injured Kiwis are facing every day. What is worse, the Government were told by all 20 DHBs a year ago that we are critically short of 4000 nurses, 1500 GPs and 1500 specialists. Despite that, all that Andrew Little has done is hire 1000 contractors and consultants to set up his new health bureaucracy.

The Government couldn’t even adjust their immigration settings to allow more nurses into New Zealand. A year on, we still do not have an immediate pathway to residency for nurses wanting to come to New Zealand. Because of decisions such as this, it is the people who are waiting nine hours in the emergency department who have to pay for it.

National has been calling on the Government to offer an immediate pathway to residency for nurses and midwives for months, because there is simply no justification for nurses and midwives waiting 2 years for residence.

Three years ago, Andrew Little also announced $1.9 billion for mental health, which has failed to address the skyrocketing rate of mental distress, overstretched services, growing workforce vacancies, and daily outcry from the New Zealand public for better access to mental health support. Where that $1.9 billion has ended up is still unknown because it certainly has not translated into better outcomes for our most vulnerable.

Our current health predicament is the mess of the Government’s making. Labour does a fantastic job of making announcements and sending out press releases but consistently fails to deliver any meaningful outcomes. The Prime Minister and her Cabinet spent all of 2021 in selfcongratulation mode after dealing with the first wave of Covid-19, but they didn’t plan their next steps appropriately, and our health system, and those who rely on it, are the ones who ultimately suffer.