Health NZ continues to improve patients’ access to care

SECTOR UPDATE - Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora

More people than ever are benefiting from timely access to the health care they need, latest health targets figures confirm.

Quarter two performance results released today (October - December 2025) showed solid improvements over the same time a year ago, with more patients accessing care sooner:

• Shorter waits for elective treatment – 64.5 per cent within four months, up from 59.2 per cent last year.
• Shorter stays in emergency departments – 74.2 per cent admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours, up from 72.1 per cent last year.
• Shorter waits for first specialist assessment – 62.2 per cent within four months, up from 60.6 per cent last year.
• Faster cancer treatment – 87 per cent to receive cancer management within 31 days of the decision to treat, up from 85.9 per cent last year.
• Improved child immunisation – 82.9 per cent fully immunised at 24 months, up from 77 per cent last year.

Since peaking in January - February 2025, our waiting lists are now also reducing for the first time in many years, positively impacting the lives of people across the country. 

While there is still much more to do, the latest figures demonstrate the progress being made as Health NZ settles as an organisation, with a strong focus on lifting patient outcomes.

The improved results were achieved despite challenges that included disruption to planned care and appointments, a widespread measles outbreak and high late winter demand on our emergency departments.

I thank all those who work with and for Health NZ for their hard work to deliver these gains for our patients, their families, and our communities.

We acknowledge we need to see further improvements - but we are on the right track and the lift in outcomes we are seeing is very encouraging.

Source: Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora media release

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