Health NZ is refusing to release its latest nursing workforce figures before Saturday's election. What doesn't it want voters to know?
Earlier this year, Kaitiaki Hauora's Dr Bill Rosenberg and Dr Jackie Cumming exposed an extraordinary gap between the Government's claims about nursing numbers and the reality.
While the Government was boasting about thousands of additional nurses, Health NZ's own data showed a net increase of just 54 full-time equivalent nurses over two years.
54.
That revelation made national headlines, was challenged and fact-checked, and became a talking point in the leaders' debate. And it came from our team - Dr Bill Rosenberg, and Dr Jackie Cumming.
Now the next set of figures is due. Actually, they are overdue. And Health NZ won't release them. Why?
The quarterly workforce report covering the three months to June 2026 remains bizarrely unpublished, more than four months after the reporting period ended.
Dr Bill Rosenberg made an urgent Official Information Act request to obtain the figures before the election.
Health NZ refused.
According to Health NZ, the figures will be publicly available soon. Except it won't say when.
The Post's Andrea Vance pressed Health NZ repeatedly for answers. She was told the data was still undergoing checks and would be published in the coming weeks.
So pretty conveniently, after New Zealanders have voted.
What are they hiding?
Have nursing numbers increased? Have they barely moved? Or have we lost more nurses from an already stretched public health system?
We don't know. And that's precisely the problem.
These are publicly funded workforce statistics, not political campaign material. They should be available to everyone, particularly when the Government is using nursing numbers to defend its record.
As Dr Rosenberg told The Post:
"It is as if Statistics New Zealand delayed publishing CPI or unemployment data before the election – completely unacceptable."
Health NZ says it is completing data checks. But why has this report taken so long, and why can't voters see it before Saturday?
New Zealanders deserve to know how many nurses are working in their public health system before they vote on its future.
If the numbers are good, release them.
If the numbers are bad, release them.
Either way, release the damn numbers.
Kaitiaki Hauora is calling on Health NZ to publish the June 2026 workforce report immediately.
