10. Question No. 10—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 10—Health10. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Does he stand by his statement that the health system as a whole is coping"?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education) on behalf of the Minister of Health: Yes. I stand by my full statement: "As the Minister I look at the system as a whole. I know there are individual hospitals facing very very serious pressures but as a whole the system is coping."Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm that a letter was sent on behalf of all 20 DHB heads and copied to the Ministry of Health on 28 July last year warning of the potential for "critical workforce issues"; and does the fact we are 4000 nurses short almost a year later indicate he failed to act on that warning?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The Government has been aware for some time that our health system was likely to come under significant pressure this year as the borders reopened as a result of two things: COVID-19 and what we fully expected and fully planned for—a more challenging flu season than we have seen because over the last two years we've seen very low levels of influenza. The Government has been working alongside the health sector to plan for that. I would however note that there is a global shortage of trained healthcare workers and that is something that New Zealand is experiencing—the same as many other countries are. The Government has been working hard to recruit in order to fill vacancies and of course to train more people. But you cannot train them overnight.Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm DHBs warned the ministry in that letter sent in July last year of "increased presentations in emergency departments"; and isn't the fact thousands of Kiwis are being forced to wait longer than six hours in ED yet another sign he is failing a core responsibility to ensure access to urgent healthcare?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: It is a sign of the fact that we are in a once-in-a-lifetime situation when it comes to healthcare. We are like every other country. The member would struggle to find any emergency department anywhere in the world that hasn't come under sustained pressure over the last two-and-a-half years. In fact our health system has not experienced the degree of pressure for the duration that many other health systems have. We've been dealing with it for this year; many health systems have been dealing with it for two-and-a-half years now.Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm that the letter from DHBs sent last year requested immediate action to ensure "overseas health professionals are facilitated to enter New Zealand as required to avert a crisis in the health sector"; and if so why are nurses still not on the highest-priority migrant list?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the first part of the question the Government has been working right the way through the border restrictions period to ensure that health workers can come into the country to fill the vacancies and make sure that we have access to the health workers that we need. In answer to the second part of the question which I now can't remember for some reason there has been ongoing work to ensure—Hon Member: Why aren't they on the Green List?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Oh that's right: the reason that we still have a requirement in place for nurses to work as nurses if they come into the country is because we don't want them coming into the country and then not working as nurses. That would somewhat defeat the purpose.Dr Shane Reti: Isn't it true that he was warned by all 20 DHBs almost a year ago of exactly the health crisis being reported today; and that Kiwis in need of healthcare are now paying the price for his failure to act?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: What I can say is the Government took seriously the feedback from district health boards. It's one of the reasons that we still have COVID-19 protection measures in place. I would note that our health system would likely be under significantly more pressure if all of our remaining COVID-19 protections were removed which some in this House—who sit over on the other side—have been arguing for."