The Government says performance lifted across all five health targets in the October–December 2025 quarter, with more people seen and treated sooner than a year earlier. The results, released by Health Minister Simeon Brown, point to year‑on‑year gains despite heavier demand on hospitals and services.

The headline numbers:

• Emergency departments: 74.2 percent of patients were admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours, up from 72.1 percent a year earlier. That still leaves about one in four patients waiting longer than six hours. ED attendances rose to 340,967 for the quarter, from 332,110.
• First specialist assessments: 62.2 percent occurred within four months, up from 60.6 percent. That means roughly 38 percent waited longer than four months. In total, 179,816 first specialist assessments were completed, up from 167,917.
• Elective treatment: 64.5 percent received treatment within four months, up from 59.2 percent. About 36 percent waited longer than four months. Overall, 51,513 people were treated from the elective waitlist, up from 46,841.
• Cancer treatment: 87.0 percent began treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat, up from 85.9 percent. First cancer treatments rose to 4,824, from 4,546.
• Childhood immunisation: 82.9 percent of children were fully immunised at 24 months, up from 77.0 percent. That equates to 12,127 children fully immunised, compared with 11,462 a year earlier.

Brown said the improvements came despite disruption to planned care, a measles outbreak and continued pressure in emergency departments. “Across every target, more New Zealanders received care sooner during the quarter,” he said, adding that the Government remained focused on “fixing the basics and lifting performance.”

The data shows more care delivered overall alongside modest improvements in timeliness, but also underlines the scale of the task: sizeable numbers of patients are still waiting beyond the stated timeframes for ED, specialist assessments and elective surgery.

The release did not include regional breakdowns or restate the target thresholds for each measure.