GUEST BLOG: Ian Powell – Hidden waiting list exposed; unmet health need unreported
Thousands of sick New Zealanders are being quietly rejected before even reaching official hospital waiting lists, hiding the true scale of unmet healthcare need.

Thousands of sick New Zealanders are being quietly rejected before even reaching official hospital waiting lists, hiding the true scale of unmet healthcare need.

Behind every staffing shortage statistic is a whānau shattered, a burnt-out health worker, and a system failing people when they are most vulnerable.

Dialysis rationing is not bad luck. It is the brutal bill for a health system that ignored prevention, ignored clinicians, and called chaos reform.

When nurses speak up about safety — should they be threatened for it?
They were warned. They cut anyway. Now the system is breaking.
PSA says home support workers must be first in line for urgent fuel relief as rising petrol prices threaten essential care services.
They were warned IT cuts would impact patient care — and ignored it. Now outages and failures are exposing the real cost.