Reports that Health NZ will be contacting New Zealanders languishing on the surgical waitlist to see if they still need their surgery is incompetence cloaked as empathy, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Miracles can happen, but contacting 30,000 patients on the surgical waitlist to see if they’re suddenly cured isn’t one of them.

“A hip wouldn’t have miraculously healed itself, and cataracts cannot go away on their own – they all require surgery. This letter will be a slap in the face for many New Zealanders who have been waiting in pain for months or years.

“Labour will do anything to make it seem like it is putting a dent in the surgical wait list, but the reality is that every month it is hitting record highs.

“Instead of investing in the hard-working frontline, Labour spent half a billion dollars on a bureaucratic health restructure in the middle of a pandemic. This decision has put an unknown amount of pressure on an already stretched health system and taken away critical resources to help tackle the growing waitlists.

“Labour also removed National’s health targets which included a target that patients receive a specialist appointment or had surgery within four months. The consequences of this was ballooning waitlists, even before Covid-19 hit our shores.

“The only action Labour has taken to tackle the waitlists was a ‘high powered’ task force last year, which produced 101 recommendations and an even bigger wait list.

“Labour has failed our health system and refuse to admit that there is a problem on their watch. But every decision they have made has actively made the health crisis worse.

“National will deliver a better health system for New Zealanders and our hard working frontline staff. We will redirect funding to our frontline services, fill the shortage of nurses and reinstate lifesaving health targets.

“National will fix the economy and get inflation under control so that we can invest in public services, like the health sector.”