RICHARD PREBBLE: Is the health system collapsing?
When I was in Labour Youth, a veteran MP explained that if the government owned bakeries, every time someone found a hair in a loaf of bread the government could fall.
Should the Greens ever establish their KiwiMart, television news will have a permanent slot for government supermarket horror stories.
We have a monolithic, Soviet-style, government-owned hospital system employing tens of thousands and treating hundreds of thousands of patients.
Every election brings hospital horror stories.
But this year TVNZ’s News at Six has gone overboard, adding special investigations.
Editors can justify the coverage by pointing to polling showing seven out of ten believe the health system is in crisis.
But when television runs hospital horror stories night after night, often featuring union representatives warning of collapse, what came first? The coverage or the polls?
During the 2002 election campaign, I caught pneumonia and was admitted to North Shore Hospital. I spent my first night in a bed in the corridor.
I know from personal experience that corridor beds are nothing new.
In a system this large, staff retire, resign, fall ill or take leave every day. Somewhere, a ward will inevitably be short-staffed.
Yet the official statistics tell another story.
New Zealand had 27.8 per cent more registered and enrolled nurses in 2025 than in 2020, and 16.2 per cent more doctors.
Health NZ’s latest quarterly results show improvements in 19 of 25 performance measures compared with a year earlier.
And the Opposition’s answer? Labour’s big health announcement this week was to promise two more reviews. What is that going to solve?
Until we have real reform, health will remain a recurring political crisis.
Singapore achieves some of the world’s best health outcomes with a very different healthcare model.
Why aren’t we debating how it does it?
Richard Prebble is a former Minister and ACT Party leader
We as a country are a mess.
Too many dumbass media pedalling their bs.
Even though Singapore's PPP per-capita spend appears slightly higher, healthcare consumes more than double the share of New Zealand's economy (10.1% vs 4.5%). This is because Singapore's total GDP per capita is significantly higher, meaning they can spend a smaller fraction of their overall wealth to achieve similar absolute funding.
In New Zealand, the government funds roughly 80% of healthcare costs through general taxation, keeping direct patient costs low. In Singapore, despite strong state subsidies, individuals directly shoulder a larger burden. Singaporeans pay roughly two and a half times more out-of-pocket annually (~US$1,273) compared to New Zealanders (~US$508).
The problem with “free” healthcare is that it promotes an inexhaustible demand that can never be met. Honest politicians would explain that reality to the NZ public.
Highlight the outliers on TVNZ every night, give the Opposition & unions ample air-time, then run a poll stating "seven out of ten believe the health system is in crisis". Who & what was asked? Are the respondents qualified to even answer the questions? See it for what it is, a political smear campaign by MSM in collusion with the leftist parties.
"Unlike legitimate surveys meant to measure public opinion, a push poll is a form of negative campaigning masquerading as an objective poll. It uses leading questions to "push" the respondent toward a specific point of view or to spread negative rumors about an opponent."
I agree with the above sentiment. The North Shore elective surgery unit is a great example of care attention and efficiency that surpasses most of the private sector and seemingly most of the public sector. The ED might be a different story arising presumably from covid jab after- effects evidenced by the numbers attending ED. The cause will continue to be debated and will only be settled when independence of investigations and factual evidence are given a fair hearing instead of government trying to save face with politicians trying to protect their own patch. avoiding adverse precedents. Voters need a direct say in such matters. Comparisons with other countries are essential. ACC Versus Health Department is one such issue.