18 August 2015

Under Pressure Minister Resorts to Tricky Figures

Jonathan Coleman is trying to be tricky with his numbers and is ignoring the more than 140,000 New Zealanders who aren’t getting the specialist care they need, Labour’s Health spokesperson Annette King says.

“New figures released to Labour under the OIA show that at least 140,000 Kiwis have been denied first specialist assessments since 2010 despite referrals from their GPs.

“Public dissatisfaction with the results of National’s health cuts seems to be getting to the Minister and he is resorting to fudging the numbers.

“Today he claimed record numbers of New Zealanders are receiving assessments from specialists, deliberately ignoring the tens of thousands of Kiwis who are being denied the expert care they need.

“National cut $1.7 billion from the health budget and it means Kiwis aren’t getting to see specialists when they need it.

“GPs are starting to speak out about their patients being sent back to them without even having seen a specialist. In some cases people are ending up in the emergency room or missing vital diagnoses like cancer,” Annette King says.

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