Then Health Minister Shane Reti also pushed the threshold for “Code Red” higher – meaning health capacity had to be “critically reduced” from 120% to over 135% before hospitals were allowed to use the term. On Sunday, 1News reported that Christchurch’s ED has been in Code Red nearly “every single day” with patients dying in corridors and in car parks, due to the resourcing crisis, and many patients now waiting over 24 hours in ED. Gisborne Hospital had already briefed Simeon Brown months earlier they are at the “brink of collapse”. As the latest news broke, Simeon Brown took on his usual lecturing tone, telling media his repetitive story of already having instructed Health NZ on his “expectations”. But it turns out all this is simply old money, already allocated to Health NZ in Budget 2025.