New plan hopes to

which is leaving patients at risk. It comes as the Government faces even more pressure after a 4-year-old boy died in a Wellington emergency department – one of several high-profile deaths at short-staffed emergency departments this year with long wait times.

Dr Andrew Connolly, who headed up the taskforce which came up with the plan, said there was already an improvement in the number of people waiting ‘‘excessively’’ long – 12 months or more – for care by about 3000, but driving this down further was the next step.

However, he said he was unable to put a target on easing the backlog, which has Ma¯ori and Pacific patients overrepresented when compared to other ethnicities. The treatment list contains about 5.2 months of work, where the health system would need to provide an extra 30,000 procedures. ‘‘There is so much uncertainty. I would challenge any of us to describe a health system anywhere in the world that is fully staffed and full resourced to meet all the challenges we have faced,’’ he said yesterday.

The first recommendations in the plan are to improve access, oversight and management of waiting lists and ensure greater efficiency in the system.