Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

It probably comes as no surprise to any of us who watched on from the confines of our homes as the Ministry of Health bungled its way through Covid, that they’ve just discovered a ’coding error’.  It means the number of hospitalisations they recorded was not, in fact, accurate.  Turns out when they said just over 14,000 people were hospitalised with Covid, they meant almost 19,500.  Whoops.  A ‘coding error’ led to the under count. Just the 5,000 odd cases out. No biggie.  Unless you’re interested in accuracy of course, or facts and real hard data, which one assumes a Ministry of Health department might be, but beggars can’t be choosers.  And when it comes to healthcare in this country, we appear to be beggars, sadly. From our delayed vaccine rollout, to our lack of PPE, to our shortage of flu vaccines, to our appalling lack of cancer treatment services, to our shortage of GP’s and nurses, to our bungles and errors, it’s not exactly a sector firing on all cylinders is it?  And then we hear yesterday that ‘the