Acting Prime Minister Grant Robertson has described the death of a four-year-old boy as “absolutely tragic”, and says his heart goes out to his family.
Neil Sebastian Chua, known as Sebby, died in Wellington Hospital last month, five days after his family initially sought medical treatment after feeling unwell, and being told to rest and take pain relief.
He had complained of a sore neck and tasting blood.
An initial report suggested Sebby may have died as the result of a bacterial throat infection.
The coroner and Health and Disability Commissioner are now investigating his death.
"My heart goes out to that family,” Robertson said.
“It's unimaginable to have to go through that."
He said the issue of emergency department wait times and Sebby’s death were not related, however.
"As the family themselves indicated, it wasn't about whether they were admitted into the ED, they were admitted twice in a timely manner, what happened once the child was admitted is now the subject of a Coroner's investigation and we need to let that flow through but it's an absolute tragedy."
National’s Christopher Luxon said there was a "big blow out" in emergency wait times, and criticised Health Minister Andrew Little.
"My bottom line is (Little) is not achieving outcomes, they're distracted by an internal centralisation focus on building a massive health bureaucracy and not enough on delivering better frontline services for Kiwis."
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