Ryall’s slippery figures

More than a million specialist appointments and follow-ups a year in New Zealand.

Minister of Health David Cunliffe said figures showed that between First Specialist Appointments and follow-up appointments there were over 1.3 million meetings with medical and surgical specialities each year.

Minister of Health David Cunliffe said National’s attempts to paint a dim picture of the health service were once again being shown up as nothing more than an attempt to cover for their lack of policy.

“The reality is under this government the number of specialist appointments and follow-ups has increased.”

“Under National people won’t even be able to afford to see a GP in order to obtain a referral to a specialist.”

Mr Cunliffe said the New Zealand health service was one of the best in the world.

“Labour has invested heavily and its paying off more people are seeing GPs and more people are getting surgical specialist appointments.”

Mr Cunliffe said he was proud of the health service this country offered.

He said it was important to look at the health sector as whole otherwise it was easy to use figures misleadingly or make mistakes.

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