As the COVID response has languished, so the health system is languishing. When did we ever think that a person with typhoid fever would be recommended to sleep in their car in the carpark at Middlemore Hospital? When did we ever think that all nurses at Wellington Hospital would issue a provisional improvement notice because the nursing shortage puts them at risk of being unsafe? When did we ever think that nurses in aged residential care would be submitting almost daily section 31 notices to the Ministry of Health saying they are at risk of practising unsafely due to nursing shortages? And we got some of the numbers today: 3,000 nurses short—2,663 registered nurses, 310 midwives—a 23.8 percent vacancy rate.