25908 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health

25908 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health: Has Health New Zealand provided him or Associate Minister of Health Costello with data on declined referrals that differs from the seven-district figures released to the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists; if so, what is the data and on what date was it provided?

Hon Simeon Brown: I am advised that indicative information on decline data was provided in a briefing to my office on 20 May 2026 and was sourced from the national referral data set, which is still in development. I am further advised the data supplied to ASMS from seven districts was drawn from local patient administration systems. This data did not go through a national quality assurance process prior to release and districts applied their own definitions (inclusions/ exclusions) to this data set.