Mike's Minute: Health issues are going to sink this government

Health, as it so often has over the years, is shaping up to be a nightmare for the Government come election time. Yesterday's Emergency Department numbers, that were so farcical no one believes them, ends a couple of weeks of absolute disaster for a Government that will go to the vote with nothing more than an ideological rejig of head office to show for hundreds of millions of dollars in upheaval. As far as actually seeing a doctor or a nurse is concerned, none of that has really seemed to matter. The immigration figures yesterday showed next to no one has turned up and is hardly surprising - except to maybe Michael Wood, who remains as defiant as ever over his genius around immigration settings. The ED figures that, sadly, the new minister Ayesha Verrall used to spruik the so-called improvement in waiting times, were nothing more than a counting, accounting, brain power, laziness - pick a word - error. The proper numbers speak for themselves. 71 percent get seen within six hours and that’s down from 76 percent and down from 95 percent under National. As we have said, even suggesting six hours is normal shows you just how messed up this whole thing has become. The four month waiting list, four months being the alleged acceptable time to wait for treatment, is out over 65,000 now - and growing. We've seen the nurses this week pleading for help and we've seen some hospitals at 195 percent capacity. We have heard the warnings about winter, the warnings that should never have had to be made because if we closed the border and all got ordered home for Covid we wouldn’t overwhelm the hospitals. Whoops. Unlike so much that dominates the political landscape, health is real. Health touches lives and thousands of them. Sack all the Rob Campbells you like - no one cares. But they care when they can't get help, can't see a doctor, or a nurse, or the waiting line gets so long it’s a joke. When it arrives on your doorstep that’s when the anger grows and the votes vanish. What Labour say about this campaign I have no idea. They’ve sacked the architect of the mess and poor old Ayesha gets to carry the can. The numbers don’t lie, well, actually they do in this case. But the numbers we know to be correct you can't hide from, spin out of or excuse. A lot will sink this Government come October but the abject, dangerous and astonishingly incompetent approach they’ve taken to health might well be the biggest crime of the lot.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.