Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): The additional ICU beds are planned to be operational in Canterbury, Waitematā, and Bay of Plenty DHBs by June 2022. These additional beds are funded out of an additional $100 million allocated for ICU infrastructure and supported by $544 million of operational funding available to fund ongoing costs like staffing, and this continues our trend of significant investment in the health system. In answer to the second part of the member's question: 21 months ago, the country was facing a significant period of uncertainty because of COVID-19. Our immediate focus, other than implementing a world-leading elimination strategy was on preparing existing facilities to surge up their capacity and to train staff to meet demand. This included purchasing more ventilators and improving oxygen in ventilation systems. In parallel, DHBs and the Ministry of Health started planning last year for permanent ICU capacity increases, using existing buildings and capability to meet any surge needs we might require. This worked successfully as we continued to eliminate COVID-19. Now as we continue to transition to the next stage of our response, DHBs have worked with the Ministry of Health to identify subcapital projects to physically expand designated ICU capacity and to resource these through workforce development and recruitment. This work has resulted in our ability to significantly increase baseline resourced ICU capacity by June 2022. It should be remembered that the New Zealand hospital system, even before the arrival of COVID, was widely regarded as being light in ICU capacity, a state which followed a significant increase in population from 2009 to 2017, accompanied by a significant under-investment in the public health system during that time.