'Spin doctor' sorry for wait-list blunder

By FRANCESCA MOLD political editor

An embarrassed Annette King has apologised for "inadvertently misleading" people by wrongly claiming hospital waiting lists had shrunk by more than 20,000.

The Health Minister yesterday blamed the blunder on a misunderstanding between herself and Ministry of Health officials.

"The way it was worded was terribly misleading," an apologetic Mrs King said.

On Sunday, Mrs King released a statement which claimed waiting lists had been slashed by 56 per cent in a three-month period last year.

She told the Herald these people had all received surgery at either public or private hospitals.

Although the figures did include some patients booked for surgery, they also included people sent back to their GP or put in a new queue called "active review."

The number of people on the active review list went up from 1949 to 17,637 in the same period that the old waiting list plummeted by 20,000.

Mrs King said she had not intended to mislead anyone. The information was provided and checked by the Ministry of Health.

The figures had been described to the minister as "surgical in-patient treatments."

This led Mrs King to believe everyone struck off the list had been treated, when in fact some would have been transferred to active review, where they still have to queue for surgery.

The waiting list announcement was an opportunity for Labour to reap some positive publicity about its achievements in health, but it has badly backfired.

Mrs King copped flak in Parliament yesterday for the botch-up, being assigned a new nickname by opposition parties - the "Minister of Spin." She is likely to be attacked further during question time in the House today.

Mrs King said that despite the confusion over the figures, she was pleased with the improvements that had been made to surgical services.

In Parliament, she said the focus should be on the time people waited, not on the length of lists.

There had been more operations performed and the waiting times were coming down, she said.

People on the active list would have a clearer idea of whether they would get an operation and their illness would be monitored more closely, with a formal condition check within six months.

Doctors are supportive of the change to active review, but say it must be remembered that people still have to wait for surgery.