The mysterious case of the missing waiting list data

Saturday, 11 July 2026

When I asked Health NZ where its detailed waiting list data had disappeared to in the last quarter’s reporting, they said it was accidentally left off. And then it happened again.

Nikki Macdonald is a senior writer for The Post. Read her story about Health NZ’s data u-turn here.

OPINION: Since the demise of district health boards, with their regular open board meetings and published board papers, detailed local health information can be hard to find.

So Health NZ’s quarterly waiting list data is an important window on the pressure points in the system.

The reporting against the government’s health targets provides a broad-brush national snapshot of hospital waiting lists, and the fact sheets give a quick comparison between regions.

But by the far the richest source of information is the accompanying spreadsheet of detailed data, which drills down by region and specialty. So in May, when I was researching a story about the hidden waiting list of rejected referrals, that was the first place I looked for context.

In May, Health NZ said it had accidentally left off the detailed data for Q2. Then it said it had stopped publishing it. Then it said it was all a big mistake.

Only it wasn’t there. The latest waiting list info drop, for quarter two (October to December 2025), was missing the detailed extract data.

So on May 5, I asked the Health NZ media team where it had gone. On May 7, they replied to say my question had been filed as an Official Information Act request.

I responded that I hadn't asked for the data, I asked where it was. I then asked whether HNZ was no longer publishing the wait list extracts, and if so, why not. No response.

On May 11, I asked again why the information wasn't being reported. Again, no response.

So on May 13, I sent questions to Health Minister Simeon Brown asking how failing to report detailed data fitted with his June 2025 pledge to bring 'transparency and accountability back to the health system, so every New Zealander can see how their local services are performing and where improvements are being made.' Once again, complete silence.

In response to an OIA, Health NZ said the Q2 omission of the data extracts was “an oversight”, and the data would still be routinely published.

And then on the 14th, I re-checked the performance reporting page. And lo, the data extracts had magically appeared. All this with zero communication.

The next day - after I posted questions on LinkedIn - Health NZ’s OIA team notified me that the data had been added to the page. But with no explanation for its original omission.

It wasn’t until I filed another OIA, that Health NZ told me the data was left off “due to an oversight”.

“The expectation of the Minister’s Office and Health New Zealand is that this data will be published every quarter,” wrote HNZ head of government services, Sasha Wood, on June 15.

Fast forward a month and I’m again looking for waiting list information. The quarter three data has now dropped, but wait, something is missing. Only now it’s not just the detailed extracts that are absent, but also the district and regional factsheets.

One oversight I can understand. Two starts to smell like something else. And sure enough, when I ask again, Health NZ admits they’ve decided to no longer publish the data.

Kiwis will instead have to request it under the OIA, so they can benefit from “an additional context”, they say.

At least that’s their position for five hours and 25 minutes.

In the meantime, I ask Health Minister Simeon Brown for comment. He reiterates - a full three weeks after he last stated it - that he expects Health NZ to keep publishing the data.

And an hour later, I get a phone call from a HNZ media person saying it was all a terrible mistake, and their earlier response was incorrect.

He even sends me a copy of the detailed data spreadsheet, which five hours earlier he told me I’d have to request under the OIA. The data which is clearly prepared and ready, but which still hasn’t been proactively published.

None of which explains why the detailed data kept “accidentally” getting left off in the first place. Is it incompetence or something else? I guess I’ll file an OIA request to find out.