Health NZ U-turns on plan to stop publishing waiting list detail
Saturday, 11 July 2026
Health NZ has U-turned on a plan to stop publishing detailed hospital waiting list data, after the minister objected.
The waitlist extracts spreadsheet is routinely published as part of Health NZ’s quarterly performance reporting. It highlights pressure points in the system, by breaking down waiting lists for first specialist assessments and elective surgery and treatments, by region and by specialty.
When The Post asked Health NZ why the detailed extracts were missing for the second consecutive quarter, the agency said it was no longer publishing the data.
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In explanation, Health NZ said the agency often reviewed what information it proactively released. Instead, people would have to apply for the spreadsheet data under the Official Information Act.
At the last count, Health NZ’s average response time for OIA requests was 23 working days. The legal maximum is 20.
A communications person argued an OIA response would give the requester the benefit of “an additional context”.
“Hence why we have moved to an OIA option so we can better support complete and relevant responses.”
The admission that Health NZ was ditching the data came despite The Post having asked the same question after the spreadsheet was left off the previous quarter’s reporting, and being told its omission was “an oversight”.
“The expectation of the Minister’s Office and Health New Zealand is that this data will be published every quarter,” Health NZ head of government services Sasha Wood wrote in June.
Asked who had now made the decision to axe the detailed data, Health NZ did not respond.
But then The Post asked Health Minister Simeon Brown how making it harder to access waiting list data fitted with his June 2025 promise that the government was “bringing 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”.
The minister’s office replied that it remained his expectation that the detailed data would be published.
“We have reiterated this expectation to Health New Zealand.“
An hour later, Health NZ backtracked and said its earlier response was incorrect, and the latest detailed data would be added to the performance reports next week.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director, Sarah Dalton, said any plan to ditch detailed waiting list performance data would be “a major cause for concern”.
“There is a relentless focus on the targets currently to the detriment, in our view, of acute care and patients with chronic conditions. If it's not possible to scrutinise progress against the targets that are shaping how Health New Zealand management requires care to be focused and prioritised, that's a real problem.”
She also called for the introduction of performance targets for recruitment of staff.
General Practice NZ chairman, Bryan Betty, said waiting list data provided a critical window on how the health system was working. He said more data should be collected and published, not less. That should include the currently hidden waiting list of patients who are referred to specialists, but turned away at the door, he said.
“The need for good transparent information on waiting lists - who gets onto the waiting list, who doesn't get onto the waiting list - is actually really, really important as a system going forward.”