5. Question No. 5—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 5—Health5. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Is the emergency department qualifying attendance data published by Health New Zealand this week different from the corrected ED data that she advised the House on 14 March 2023 was the correct data; if so what are the differences?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health): Yes the statistics I was referring to on 14 March are different to what was published on 4 April. For the data published on 4 April across the 12 measures there are minor shifts in the reported numbers. I am advised that this is normal due to data in national collections continually being updated as patient records are processed. This means that the same analysis performed a week later will have slightly different results. For two measures—emergency department (ED) admissions and emergency department presentations—Te Whatu Ora's checking process identified underlying issues with the flow from Southern West Coast Waikato and Counties Manukau. These types of updates have occurred in the past and will occur in the future when working with administrative data. Minor shifts in emergency department presentations impact the ED qualifying attendance data. This has been rectified in the republished metrics.Dr Shane Reti: How can Kiwis have any confidence in this Government's health reforms if the new centralised health system can't even perform simple tasks like publishing accurate and consistent ED wait times?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: As I said to the House in my initial reply to this question a few weeks ago this type of administrative data reflects real-world data collected in the health system and there will be minor changes in it from time to time. Now the sum total of these changes is less than 2 percent when you look across the Shorter Stays in ED" statistics. I wouldn't be fussy about a 2 percent difference if I was a party who had just had to correct the casting of 73 percent of their votes!Dr Shane Reti: Is she calling a difference of 4502 patients between the two datasets at Counties Manukau minor and insignificant?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: No but I think that when you look across—what I am saying is that with these types of administrative datasets corrections occur all the time and that is part of the usual publishing of these types of statistics as I explained to him previously in the House.Dr Shane Reti: When she wrote that having eight ED beds out of commission for up to 10 weeks due to a leak at Waikato Hospital is having no impact on patient wait times does she seriously expect New Zealanders and staff to believe that?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: The particular performance of that emergency department—those updated statistics—will be published in due course.Dr Shane Reti: Doesn't it show that she has done absolutely nothing to fix Middlemore ED from June last year when the independent inquiry into a death said Middlemore ED was overcrowded and unsafe through to now with a leaked staff survey last week showing 81 percent of Middlemore ED staff don't have the resources to do their job well?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: There have been a number of measures implemented at Middlemore ED to improve the flow there from the type of senior staff being there right at the front door to assess patients being one of the lead ones so that good decisions are made by those most qualified to make them and in the patients' best interests. The staff have done an excellent job implementing the recommendations of their report. I stand by their efforts."