Deputy PM Grant Robertson, National leader Christopher Luxon and National party health spokesman Shane Reti speak about the healthy system following the death of a four-year-old at Wellington Hospital.
Video / Mark Mitchell
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson is defending his Government's investment in health following the death of a 4-year-old boy in a Wellington hospital last month.
Neil Sebastian "Sebby" Chua died on September 26 at Wellington Regional Hospital five days after he began complaining of a sore neck.
Parents Neil Arvin Chua and Abegail Chua have now lodged a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner concerning what they considered to be poor care for their son.
"My heart goes out to that family. It's unimaginable to have to go through that."
The Government has copped flack in recent weeks over emergency department wait times. According to the National Party, just 76 per cent of patients were being seen within the Government's target of six hours as at June.
Robertson claimed the issue of extended wait times and Sebby's death were unrelated.
"As the family themselves indicated, it wasn't about whether they were admitted into the ED, they were admitted twice in a timely manner, what happened once the child was admitted is now the subject of a Coroner's investigation and we need to let that flow through but it's an absolute tragedy."
On September 22, Sebby's mother took him to Kenepuru Hospital, where he was diagnosed with wry neck and a viral infection, and prescribed rest and pain relief.
Arvin and Abegail Chua's four-year-old son died in Wellington Regional Hospital last month. Photo / Dave Lintott
The doctor looked down Sebby's throat, describing it as "nice and pink", but Abegail Chua - a registered nurse - was concerned his neck was swollen and asked for a second look.
"The doctor said, 'Oh it's okay, it looks fine'," she said.
Sebby was taken home, but showed no improvement. A Covid-19 rapid antigen test showed a faint positive line.
By Sunday, Sebby was complaining of joint pains but still eating and drinking normally. Chua called Healthline who advised hospital if swelling and rashes appeared.
The next day, Sebby's arms and legs had become swollen, so his parents took him to Wellington Regional Hospital, where he was admitted to the emergency department at 11.16am.
He was seen by a doctor about noon, given paracetamol and a paediatric doctor referral was made.
About two hours later, a second doctor assessed Sebby, whose mother told him her son's shoulders were now also swollen. He also had joint pains.
Abegail Chua - who was alone in hospital with her son because Chua had to wait in the car park due to the hospital's one-parent rule - says that she was told by one doctor at about 3.30pm or 4pm that "you have nothing to worry about".
When the boy's condition worsened and staff couldn't get a reading of his oxygen levels, Sebby was moved to Resus between 5.22pm and 5.44pm.
He was given an electrocardiogram, X-ray and administered electrolytes and antibiotics. "But [I thought] the antibiotics won't do anything - it's too late," Abegail Chua said.
By 6.57pm, Chua was watching medical staff try to save Sebby's life but he was pronounced dead at 7.30pm.
Te Whatu Ora Capital & Coast interim district director John Tait would not comment publicly as the matter was before the Coroner and the Health and Disability Commissioner.
Asked whether Sebby's death was due to insufficient funding of the health sector, Robertson defended his Government's record on health spending.
"I know that as a Government we have put more money into the health sector than previous governments have."
National Party leader Christopher Luxon. Photo / Mike Scott
National leader Christopher Luxon criticised Health Minister Andrew Little following a series of "heart-breaking" stories of Kiwis being let down by the healthcare system.
"My bottom line is [Little] is not achieving outcomes, they're distracted by an internal centralisation focus on building a massive health bureaucracy and not enough on delivering better frontline services for Kiwis."
He rejected Robertson's implication that current issues in the sector stemmed from the last National Government.
"We've had a Government here now for five years, it's been five years of abject, utter failure and it's time that we actually face up and they take some accountability for what is a very poor set of outcomes for New Zealanders."
National health spokesman Dr Shane Reti wouldn't comment on whether he thought Little should resign.
"It's not a decision for me to make, I think he is likely to have lost support from the sector and it's going to be really hard to make progress when you've lost support."
Little, speaking to media before Reti and Luxon's comments, wouldn't speculate on any sector failures that could have contributed to Sebby's death before investigations concluded.
"The facts need to be established and that's what the role of the corner is, to establish what the facts are which includes context and cause and the hospital also has the opportunity to investigate."
He said work was being done across the health system to ensure hospital processes were more consistent.
"It's interesting what the management of Te Whatu Ora has discovered is just the level of variability in the way different hospitals manage things like patient flow, discharge decisions, the way patients are managed within ED so there's quite a bit of work to do to get some consistency."
