New Zealand heads into an election in November. Ipsos: for 44% of the country, healthcare is the top concern, after the cost of living. The Guardian puts waiting lists, packed emergency departments and hard-to-reach GPs in the middle. That is not a campaign verdict. It is what people say and what the parties answer.

Jane Harrison, 60, in Diamond Harbour: her husband, Shaun Fitzgerald, 65, is waiting for a second spinal fusion. The paramedics, she says, told them there were no beds, better at home. Labour, through Ayesha Verrall: prevention and primary care, three free GP visits paid from a targeted capital-gains tax, free prescriptions, jobs for newly licensed nurses. National, through health minister Simeon Brown: the system is “measurably improving”.

Brown, quoted by the Guardian: three-quarters of emergency patients seen within the six-hour target; immunisations; elective lists. Money to private hospitals: 40,000 extra operations, he says. He still concedes the pressure. RNZ, on 17 October: 76.3% within six hours, March–June 2026, five points above Labour’s last 2023 tally. The figures miss this winter’s flu. Palmerston North: 55%. Capital and Coast: 63%.

Dr Katie Ben, president of the salaried specialists’ union: not enough beds, nurses, doctors. In Nelson, 17 fewer nurses than three years ago. The Guardian: 54 full-time nursing posts since the government took office, not the 2,000 Brown promised. One in four adults says they cannot reach a GP. We have not turned that into an indictment.

1News Verian: National and Labour, 28% each. Greens 15%, ACT and NZ First 10%, Opportunity 8%. That is not a result. National, if it stays: NZ$604m for medicines, from cutting foreign aid outside the Pacific. Luxon said, in August, that the government had “certainly strengthened” healthcare. RNZ put the quotes on “certainly”.

We are not picking a winner in November. The Guardian is a feature, not a ballot. RNZ is a check on the six-hour target, with regions going backwards. Until the vote, the lists, the EDs and two offers that do not meet remain.

Image: Tom Ackroyd, Wellington Hospital, 26 April 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not a 2026 emergency department.

Sources consulted: ‘You reach a tipping point’: New Zealand’s strained healthcare system at centre of election battle — The Guardian; Christopher Luxon says his government has ‘certainly strengthened healthcare’ — has it really? — RNZ.