The health data that is being hidden until after the election

Ian McRae writes:

Six months ago I stated that “the whole system is quickly descending into hell in a handbasket and every day the news gets worse”. Well, that’s happened as any chronically ill patient waiting in the public system or health worker will tell you.

We would know the full extent of the crisis if we had the usual reporting of waiting list numbers, surgery cancellations, ED and GP wait times, etc.

However, Te Whatu Ora and the Health Minister have conveniently paused all reporting until October 31, 2023, two weeks after the election. I have been told privately that the numbers are appalling and senior doctor conversations confirm this.

A new Government should hold an inquiry into how this health data has been suppressed and kept private despite the requirements of the Official Information Act. For over 15 years we have had quarterly data on the health sector within a few weeks of the end of each quarter. Now we are told this new improved health structure means we have no data for the last six months, and voters will be robbed of making an informed choice.

An immediate first step has to be getting regular quarterly reporting of the numbers (good and bad) restarted, with an emphasis shift to measure outputs/results rather than inputs (what was spent).

This is a core minimum we should expect.

On the resourcing front, many commentators glibly state that the answer is to simply train (or hire offshore) more doctors and nurses. There is no doubt that we need more health professionals but that’s going to take a decade or more to deliver.

Meanwhile, waiting lists continue to grow and the public system has no chance of clearing these anytime soon. So we need to seriously explore how private services might help without cannibalising public health.

Then we should look at wastage.

We should be getting rid of the expensive consultancy firms (their advice is mostly rubbish), the hundreds of communications experts and a good chunk of Wellington bureaucracy. Call time-out on some of the crazy Government boondoggle projects that never went to proper procurement and have never delivered and this should all free up a fair amount of money to give doctors and nurses well overdue pay increases.

All good ideas.

This is where organisation efficiency is vital and New Zealand has two extreme examples of good and terrible. Firstly, Labour’s single centralised health system (Te Whatu Ora) has been a terrible failure. It will deliver more bureaucracy, stymie innovation, frustrate the coalface workforce and deliver a less productive healthcare system. Though they have solved the postcode health problem, as right across the country everyone now gets the same rubbish healthcare.

This is so often what Labour does – drag everyone down to the same level rather than lift performance across the board.