Labour is promising improvements at emergency departments and to move patients through hospital faster.
On Auckland’s North Shore on Tuesday, leader Chris Hipkins committed to:
moving patients through hospital fasterthe right care in the right placekeeping people healthy and out of hospital”stronger leadership from day one”
Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Labour would order an immediate report identifying hospital beds that could be opened with more staffing, and make hospitals accountable for getting patients the care they need.
The report would also look into deaths and safety linked to long waits.
She pointed to staffing and capacity problems: North Shore nurses describing days with three times the patients the department was staffed to care for, cancer treatment delays at Starship children’s hospital, ED staff working at 150-200 percent capacity at Tauranga Hospital, and Wellington’s ED being at code red for 84 percent of August.
It also follows half of senior doctors at Blenheim’s Wairau hospital warning of chronic understaffing and an ED on the brink of collapse, with the lack of an obstetrician forcing a helicopter to be stationed on site to transfer pregnant mums to another hospital.
Verrall said with GP fees having increased 21 percent in the past three years, it was too unaffordable for many to get an appointment.
The party is pointing to its policies of three free GP visits a year, a medicard, and guaranteeing a job for all eligible graduate nurses.
“We’ll end National’s hiring freeze and guarantee every eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurse a job in our health system. Around 2400 graduates a year will be offered work, with roles available from 2027.”
Hipkins challenged National’s leader Christopher Luxon to a debate on health.
National’s health spokesperson Simeon Brown said Labour’s plan for emergency departments has to be judged against the party’s record in government.
“In 2017, around 89 percent of patients were in and out of ED within six hours. One of Labour’s first moves in health was to scrap that target, and by the time it left office in 2023, performance had fallen to 68 percent. In the first three months of 2023 alone, more than 1,800 people spent 24 hours or more in ED.
“Labour’s plan now promises accountability, starting with a meeting, a report, and a stocktake. Another glossy document and another review won’t fix a single ED. Labour had six years to get this right, and performance went backwards on its watch.”
Brown said since the coalition brought the target back, diagnostic wait lists have reduced, and today 76 percent of patients are out within six hours.
He said wait times were still too long and there was more to do, and the government has expanded urgent and after hours care, and was training and hiring more nurses and doctors.
“If Chris Hipkins is serious about fixing EDs, he will commit to keeping the health target. So far, he has refused to.”
Labour has previously argued health targets led to gaming of the system, and ED metrics were affected by the Covid pandemic.