9. Question No. 9—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 9—Health9. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Does he stand by his statement that the health system as a whole is coping" and what then is the current national percentage of people being seen in emergency departments within six hours?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): In response to the first part of the member's question I stand by my full statement which was "As the minister I look at the system as a whole. I know there are individual hospitals facing very very serious pressure but as a whole the system is coping." In response to the second part of the member's question I've been advised that the preliminary data for the week ending 12 June 2022 indicates that the national percentage of people being seen in emergency departments within six hours is 74.1 percent. I note that the final data is reported to the Ministry of Health a month later so we won't have an accurate picture of what has been happening this month until the end of next month. For the sake of completeness the member should be aware that the three months down to 31 March 2022 shows the range of performance against the target for people being seen in emergency departments within six hours goes from 63.5 percent at MidCentral District Health Board to 95.4 percent at Tairāwhiti District Health Board. The overall average across the hospital network for the third quarter was 78.5 percent.Dr Shane Reti: When National handed over in 2017-2018 was the six-hour emergency department (ED) wait time better than 90 percent against target and what responsibility does he take for the 74.1 percent figure he has given to this House today?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: No; the target number has fallen over the last five years and that is largely as a consequence of the response to COVID that caused a major difference but also because with a system that has had more people added to it even accounting for the various vacancies that we have at the moment more people turning up to EDs it is a system under greater pressure. And in a winter when we have a flu season such as we have not had for at least three years it is putting even more pressure on the system and that's reflected in these measures.Dr Shane Reti: Does he agree that people being made to wait as long as 32 hours in the emergency department and elective surgeries being cancelled due to unsafe staffing levels are both signs that the health system is in fact not coping as a whole?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: It is a standard measure every winter for hospitals to manage down their planned care in response to expected increases in presentations of respiratory conditions including the consequences of flu. So there is nothing unusual in that respect. In terms of waiting times in ED it is correct that there are more people waiting longer. That is a fact. But right now we have roughly 90000 people presenting to all our ED departments in a month. And of those regrettably about 200 are waiting longer than 24 hours.Dr Shane Reti: Which DHBs currently have ED waiting times worse than Middlemore and will they get free weekend GP visits also?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The figure released for Counties Manukau DHB is 76.3 percent on that target for waiting no more than six hours. As I said in my answer to the primary question there is a range of measures against that target but there are some EDs where people are waiting longer on average than at Counties Manukau and there are some where they're waiting less on average than at Counties Manukau.Dr Shane Reti: Which DHBs currently have ED waiting times worse than Middlemore?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I can go through the list of 20 DHBs if the member would wish—it would take a long part of the time. But I think it is fair to say that as I indicated there are some EDs where people are waiting longer than six hours and some where they're waiting shorter than six hours. Counties Manukau sits around that mid-70s percent mark. There are others—as I've indicated Tairāwhiti sits in the 90s; you've got others: Taranaki Waikato all in the 70s; you've got Auckland DHBs 79 nearly 80 percent; Bay of Plenty at 78 percent; Canterbury at 81 percent. There's a range of performances against the measures. I think the critical thing is—because listening to that member and his leader earlier today there's sort of a message that somehow this measure is not being kept—this measure is being kept. The difference is that unlike the previous Government that punishes hospitals for not meeting the target we use this as a reason to exercise a management intervention to improve the performance of these EDs."