Integrity is more than being honest, it’s about speaking and acting in a way that is consistent with your values. This is particularly important when you are in a position of leadership.
Integrity is the foundation of trust in relationships, it builds credibility and is characterised by transparency and accountability. Ethical leadership isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. With the power of social media, unethical behavior is hard to hide. And when it does come to light, the fallout is swift.
A recent interview of Minister of Health Simeon Brown, by investigative reporter Jack Tame was one such example (Simeon Brown: Energy prices, hospital pressures, and National's polling - for hospital pressures start at 17 minutes 40 seconds). This blog is a summary of what was said and what wasn’t.
ED Corridor Care: What he said…
Minister Brown stated he is focused on delivery and improved patient outcomes. He said… finances are important, but the most important thing is that patients are being seen faster. When confronted with the fact of increasing ED corridor care, he said he didn’t want it happening, and that ED wait times targets were improving.
What he didn’t say….
That the annual number of patients presenting to Emergency Departments in 2021 was 752,000 approximately. In 2025, 1,305,000 patients presented to EDs. In other words, the workload has doubled in just under four years. While this is clearly not a new problem, in the last three years, corridor care in EDs have become the norm. Hospital corridors were never designed to provide patient care but this an avoidable reality of overcrowded hospitals and a serious threat to patient safety and a real risk to nurse registration when things go wrong. As such, EDs regularly run over capacity. Wellington hospital, a case in point, saw the department running at 223% over capacity recently.
‘Gaming’ to hide the truth, abounds. Shifting patients here, there and everywhere has become another part of ED nurse’s workload. In recent months the number of Surgical and Medical Assessment Units have increased around the country whereby ED patients are shifted to these areas, and this is why the Minister was able to say that the wait times ‘to be seen’ have slightly reduced. Patients, wait, instead in these units to be seen.
2100 nurses recruited: What he said….
A total of number of 2100 additional nurses on top of the nurses we had in 2023 have been recruited to Health New Zealand.
What he didn’t say…
That there is a vast difference between the number of nurses recruited and the FTE that have been hired. The Minister refused to acknowledge that the actual total nursing FTE has increased by only 54 FTE in the same time period. The claim that nurse numbers were increasing was also challenged in a recent paywalled article in The Press (28 July 2026) by health economists who found that “the number of nurses has barely changed in two years”.
1400 nurse vacancies (Health New Zealand): What he said…
That Health New Zealand was recruiting as evidenced by the 1400 nurse vacancies currently on the organisation’s website.
What was not said….
That nurses have been managing with unfilled vacancies for some time, contributing to unsustainable workloads. Yet 40% of our recent new nurse graduates cannot get jobs. It just doesn’t add up.
That vacancies being advertised are only budgeted vacancies, they do not reflect need.
And the need is huge and growing. Last year, after finally getting the Ombudsman involved, Te Whata Ora’s own data demonstrated that every hospital shift was, on average, short 587 nurses, rising to 937 nurses on some shifts in 2023. God knows how many nurse FTEs are now missing in action in 2026. The gaps are being filled by nurses fielding constant texts asking nurses to come back to work and consequently working on their days off, doing overtime, double shifts, missing meals breaks, while also being rewarded by having mandatory and service education cancelled constantly, education that ensures that nurse’s knowledge and skill remain current and competent.
When leadership goes wrong—whether it’s outright unethical or simply a lack of ethics—the consequences ripple far and wide. These leadership failures can lead to toxic work environments, loss of trust, and avoidable harm. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Last week Paul Goulter, Kerri Nuku and I met with the health minister. We made mention of the need to monitor patient outcomes alongside his system targets, as this appeared to be his priority. We asked that the Clinical-quality-and-safety-review.pdf completed in 2023 be continued so that ‘improved patient outcomes’ could be tracked alongside nurse FTE. He told us that he will take advice on that request. For me, it is well past time to call for an urgent workplace safety investigation into the growing practice of treating patients in hospital corridors. It is my belief that a major patient safety debate is unfolding. It cannot wait for yet another to die in an ED wait room.
To that end, we are in dire need of a government that has integrity and a government we can trust. 7 November 2026 – here we come.