While New Zealand’s health system is in crisis, the Health Minister is looking for answers at a workforce hui instead of just putting nurses on the fast track to residence, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“The fact that Andrew Little is looking for answers to the health crisis he has presided over at a workforce hui shows the Government is bereft of ideas and too stubborn to offer migrant nurses immediate residence.

“The Minister has repeatedly ignored warnings of an impending workforce crisis from DHBs, aged residential care leaders and GPs. Why would the crisis-denying Minister start listening now?

“Andrew Little has already been told by the sector precisely what needs to happen. New Zealand is short of 4,000 nurses and the best way to fix that is to offer migrant nurses an immediate pathway to residence.

“Instead of spending money on a workforce hui for 160 health professionals when the answers are already apparent, this money should be going to the frontline of our under-pressure health workforce.

“Given that the most effective way all alleviating pressure on the workforce is already known, the Minister’s hui looks more like a cynical attempt to sanitise the health crisis that he has overseen by sharing the blame with everyone in the room.”