Surgery wait times ‘not good enough’ says Health Minister after Te Whatu Ora releases corrected data

More than 6000 patients who have been approved for surgery have been waiting more than a year for their operation, newly-released figures show.

Te Whatu Ora re-published its national performance data today, after admitting earlier this month that some of its reporting was incorrect.

Its old data had wrongly shown that some regions were performing much better than expected in areas like emergency department waiting times. It was pulled from its website after the mistakes were noticed.

The new data showed worsening performance in many areas, including an increase in the number of patients waiting more than a year for surgery after getting a commitment to treatment.

There were 6003 people in this category in December, up from 2487 a year earlier.

“It’s not good enough,” said Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, who added that she had made wait-lists one of her top three priorities.

“We will take time to see that shift because of the pressure the system is under. But we’re taking a number of co-ordinated actions to get there.”

Planned care, or elective services, is one of three priority areas where Te Whatu Ora has established taskforces to address shortages and wait times.

Dr Verrall did not directly answer questions about whether she felt the health system was in crisis, saying that New Zealand had survived a global pandemic with some of the best health outcomes in the world.

“I know the system is under pressure. I see that in the workforce, I see our patients waiting too long for treatment. But we have the tools to address that … and we work on that every day.”

Te Whatu Ora’s old data had shown that 99.7 per cent of patients at Northland’s emergency department were being seen within six hours.

That was a huge improvement on previous months and at odds with what staff and patients were reporting on the ground.

The corrected data showed that the actual rate was 79.2 per cent. The national rate is 72.6 per cent, well below the target of 95 per cent.

Te Whatu Ora said in a statement that it had found data problems for two measures - ED admissions and presentations - for the Southern, West Coast, Waikato and Counties Manukau regions.

Following a review, it was now confident about the data it was published. The incorrect data had not affected day-to-care care or services, the organisation said. A further review led by Dr Dale Bramley on Te Whatu Ora’s data reporting was expected to be finished in mid-April.

“The performance data republished today shows a health system working tirelessly to meet the ongoing demand,” Te Whatu Ora said. “We know that as we head into winter, seasonal illness and operational challenges will put pressure on health and disability providers.”