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The health headlines for this July alone make for grim reading.<\/p>\n
A patient dies after collapsing in a hospital waiting room toilet, another slips in the shower while trying to squash cockroaches, with fleas reported nearby.<\/p>\n
Critical IT systems fail, forcing staff back to pen and paper, while hospital buildings fall into disrepair with leaking roofs, mould, failing lights, and wet, crackling electrical sockets.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the hospital left with no permanent gastro specialists after the last one departed. <\/p>\n
While on Thursday morning, a doctor at Christchurch Hospital told RNZ there are emergency plans to pitch a tent outside as corridors fill up with patients in beds.<\/p>\n
And of course, this is on top of the problems that have been making headlines for years: long waiting lists, chronic understaffing, and exhausted frontline workers.<\/p>\n
So, have our public hospitals reached a tipping point?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be fair to say that it is a bit of a tipping point,\u201d RNZ health correspondent Kate Green tells The Detail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not tipping, then a slow descent into crisis for sure. It does seem like no part of the system is getting a break. The GPs are getting inundated, the hospitals are inundated, there\u2019s bed block because the wards are full, so the EDs are full. It really does feel like every part of it is under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s spent months talking to patients, doctors, nurses and health leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s never been a more important time to talk about health and the fact that we\u2019re in a health crisis and what we can do, what amount of money, what amount of staff would go towards fixing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few stories have captured the crisis more starkly than the death of a Waikato Hospital patient who collapsed in a toilet after waiting around nine hours to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients described that there was just a rush of staff to get him out of the toilet onto a gurney,\u201d says Green. \u201cOne of the people that I spoke to described how a nurse was performing CPR on top of the gurney as he was wheeled away. You don\u2019t expect to see this in a hospital in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s family is still waiting for answers.<\/p>\n
Then came another story that shocked many New Zealanders for very different reasons.<\/p>\n
Patient Claudia Elliott contacted Green after slipping in an Auckland Hospital shower while trying to squash cockroaches.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, staff also described an ongoing flea problem, with reports of bites affecting workers, patients and even staff\u2019s family members after fleas were carried home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been hundreds of reports from staff in the past year or so,\u201d Green says.<\/p>\n
Ageing infrastructure is another growing concern.<\/p>\n
Hospital IT failures have left clinicians unable to access patient records, slowing treatment and forcing staff back to handwritten notes. Green says those outages are just one example of years of underinvestment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing how the system is failing all on its own as well \u2026 there have been major outages recently \u2026 [the recent outage in Waikato] left people unable to check patient records. Of course that makes it harder to treat people and definitely slows everything down in a system that\u2019s already under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
For frontline staff, the emotional toll is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, with one story staying with Green, who says following the death of the Waikato patient, a nurse finishing her shift reportedly handed complaint forms to people sitting in the emergency department waiting room.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was saying, \u2018Please, please make a complaint. Tell them what\u2019s happened. Tell them that we need resources. Tell them we\u2019re understaffed. Please be our voice.’\u201d<\/p>\n
But Green says it\u2019s not just staff shortages driving the crisis. New Zealand has an ageing population, emergency departments are treating increasingly complex chronic illnesses, and GPs are taking on more procedures that once happened in hospital.<\/p>\n
Every part of the health system is under strain. So can any of it be fixed?<\/p>\n
Green believes it can \u2013 but not quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consensus is \u2026 to fix this is going to take years because of that long period we spent underfunding the health system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand has acknowledged many of the challenges, and Budget 2026 included funding for hospital infrastructure, digital security and primary care. But Green says rebuilding public confidence will take sustained investment over many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most people would say investing in general practice is the key. We have to get proper resourcing, proper care, accessible care, fast care in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because, she says, if people can see their GP sooner, fewer will end up in already overwhelmed emergency departments.<\/p>\n
On a personal note, Green admits she worries about what lies ahead for her own parents, who will start relying more on the health system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that they\u2019re starting to need more interactions with the health system and I\u2019m scared \u2026 I\u2019m almost tempted to buy my mother a plane ticket \u2026 send her off to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
For someone who covers the health system every day, this is perhaps the clearest indication yet of just how much confidence has been shaken.<\/p>\n
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