95bFM Labour's Andrew Little: Brooke Van Velden's comments on ICU bed capacity 'simply erroneous'
24 August, 2022
Interview by Tuva'a Clifton, adapted by Jessica Hopkins
Health Minister Andrew Little states that 18 beds have been added since he announced the funding for ICU projects. Photo: Unsplash.
Health Minister Andrew Little has denied ACT Party Deputy Leader Brooke Van Velden's accusations that the government has made "next to no progress" since their announcement on funding extra ICU beds in December, calling her comments "highly misleading, contentious, and simply not related to the issue at hand."
The Act Party's criticism came after it requested from the Minister of Health office about the number of resourced ward beds and resourced ICU and high dependency unit beds from 24 August, 2021 to 29 July, 2022
Van Velden claimed that Little’s promise of $100 million for more ICU beds has resulted in just three additional beds.
“Andrew Little needs to explain why so little progress has taken place, what is he doing to ensure that more ICU beds are becoming available, and when can we finally expect results," Van Velden told The Wire's Alex Wiezerbecki.
The Minister of Health objected to Van Velden's claims on 95bFM's The Wire, stating that 18 beds have been added since he announced the funding for ICU projects.
"Brooke Van Velden has used the daily tally of ICU and high dependency unit beds to draw a conclusion that is simply not right."
"The day-to-day availability of those beds varies depending on staff absenteeism and scheduled surgeries. Her figures are simply erroneous and do not relate to the work that has gone into funding additional ICU beds."
"On this occasion, Brooke Van Velden is just totally and completely wrong. She is comparing things that can't be compared."
Little admitted that compared to the US and the UK, the number of ICU beds we have per capita is low.
"That's why we committed to having additional ICU capacity, including nurses who take time to train. ICU beds require about six highly trained nurses per bed."
In December last year, the government also announced an additional $544 million to fund ongoing costs like staffing and a recruitment campaign.
Little said he is confident we will reach the target of 85 beds by 1 July 2024.
"The advice I've had is we are on track to achieve that, but that does assume we make good on our recruitment expectations over the next 18 months."
Van Velden also claimed that the government put the country into lockdown last year because we did not have ICU bed capacity.
"Because we haven't seen this capacity, we could see a situation where the government plunges us back into another lockdown."
Little opposed this, stating that the lockdown was to slow transmission of Covid-19, not because of ICU capacity.
"It is true that a number of public health measures we took were to alleviate pressures on hospitals. There were claims of an ICU crisis last year, but there was no ICU crisis."
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