They were untrained and unregulated compared with nurses, who had to be registered. But they worked with nurses and did some nursing work, mainly in the aged care sector.
Mr Annals said there were more nurses in the sector than three years ago but he did not know how many.
"Even if the 2000 figure was true, it would be meaningless because if we needed 4000 more, we're only halfway there.." The real question was how many nurses were needed and will be needed in the years to come, he said.
"The fact the figure includes unregulated nursing workers just further compounds this smoke and mirror stuff we have, instead of the hard information that the public of New Zealand needs," he said.
Mr Ryall dismissed the organisation's concerns about the validity of his numbers, "because the nurses union actively campaigns against the Government, it's as simple as that".
Last week senior doctors' union executive director Ian Powell challenged Mr Ryall's claim that there were 800 more doctors.
"Based on figures provided to us by all district health boards, the number of public hospital specialists increased by only 373 over the three years from July 2008 to July 2011. Even an extra 373 specialists is inflated because it includes some short-term appointments," Dr Powell said.
"This is well short of the over 200 extra hospital specialists per year for the next 20 years that we have agreed with the district health boards that we need, if we are to overcome our workforce crisis and catch up with Australia."
The Ministry of Health figures for doctors included house officers, house surgeons, probationers and interns. The nursing personnel included registered midwives and health assistants.
Locums were excluded.
