New report reveals the grim reality of heart healthcare in New Zealand
A damning new report has exposed deep flaws in New Zealand’s heart healthcare system, where access to life-saving treatment often depends on luck, postcode, and ethnicity rather than clinical need.
Commissioned by The Heart of Aotearoa - Kia Manawanui Trust and prepared by the University of Otago, the 'Heart disease in Aotearoa: morbidity, mortality, and service delivery' report reveals a system plagued by chronic under-resourcing, critical workforce shortages, and deadly inequities.
Trust Chief Executive Ms Letitia Harding says the report lays bare a system that is failing at every level.
"Heart care in New Zealand isn’t just stretched - it’s on the verge of collapse.
"We are failing in all aspects, and it's costing New Zealanders their lives."
Key findings from the report include:
Life-threatening delays: Half of all heart attack patients aren't seen within internationally accepted timeframes.
Alarming workforce shortage: New Zealand has only a third of the cardiologists it should have.
Systemic inequality: Māori and Pacific people are hospitalised or die from heart disease more than a decade earlier, on average, than other New Zealanders.
The financial burden: Heart disease costs the country's health system and economy $13.8 billion per year
A postcode lottery for care: Regions with the highest death rates -Tairāwhiti, Lakes, Whanganui, and Taranaki - have the fewest cardiac specialists.
The deadliest conditions: Heart disease accounts for 20% of all deaths in New Zealand. The five heart conditions responsible for the majority are: heart failure, atrial fibrillation and flutter (AFF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), subsequent myocardial infarction and cardiomyopathy.
Trust Medical Director Dr Sarah Fairley, who is also a Wellington-based cardiologist, says the findings match what frontline clinicians see every day.
"From inside the system, I can tell you that this report reflects what we see every day: a workforce stretched beyond safe limits, patients slipping through the cracks, and no end in sight."
Ms Harding says this report should be a wake-up call for the Government.
The Heart of Aotearoa - Kia Manawanui Trust is calling for an urgent government response, including immediate investment in public hospital cardiac care infrastructure - beds and equipment - and a national strategy to recruit and retain cardiology staff.