Michael Woodhouse - Health

7 October 2019

Health Minister David Clark has dragged his heels and almost 100 days after the end of the financial year he still hasn’t published data on elective surgery numbers, National’s Health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.

“Dr Clark’s stopped proactively publishing health data Kiwis have a right to see because he knows the current Government won’t match National’s record of nine years of exceeding health targets and continuously improving Kiwis’ access to elective surgeries.

“As National predicted earlier this year, we could see the number of elective surgeries fall for the first time in a decade under this Labour-led Government. That’s thousands fewer New Zealanders getting the healthcare they need.

“Since this Government came into office, we’ve seen health targets scrapped, falling vaccination rates, measles outbreaks, increased A&E waiting times and flatlining PHARMAC funding.

“Elective surgeries can transform patients’ quality of life. National recognised how important they were and continuously increased surgery numbers so that more New Zealanders benefitted from timely access to healthcare.

“Dr Clark needs to be upfront with New Zealanders and show us the numbers.”

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