Health Minister Simeon Brown bumps pothole up the waiting list at Auckland hospital

Simeon Brown’s war on the country’s potholes has followed him from the transport to the health portfolio.

The $4 billion Brown set aside to fix potholes over the next three years has not remedied a large pothole at the main entrance to Auckland’s Greenlane Hospital.

A regular hospital visitor, Jason Oxenham, said there was no way to avoid the “moon crater”.

“It’s a big jolt. I wonder what it’s like for people with back pain and other pains. It has been like this for months. It’s crazy.”

Mathew Dearnaley, who posted a photo of the pothole and a single orange road cone on social media, said: “Here was I, thinking our new Minister of Health would at least know how to fix the odd pothole”.

Another person commented: “Pothole joins the health waiting list for remedial surgery”.

Brown said potholes were a problem for motorists on our roads and in car parks.

“I am advised that Health NZ has made a temporary repair today and is planning on more extensive renovations in about a month’s time,” he said.

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