Acting Prime Minister Grant Robertson is fronting media following today's Cabinet meeting - and as a plane carrying Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travelling to Antarctica had to be turned around.

Robertson is speaking in place of Ardern, who was supposed to be visiting Scott Base for the first time since the pandemic but had to turn back to Christchurch due to bad weather in McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

He said they were currently assessing options to reschedule her trip.

Robertson said Parliament from today reaching gender equity was a "significant moment".

This came about with Soraya Peke-Mason entering Parliament for Labour after Trevor Mallard's retirement as an MP. A special Parliamentary photo would be taken in the coming weeks to mark the milestone.

Robertson is expected to canvass a range of other issues, including economic lessons learned from a recent trip to Washington DC for a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

There he met with finance ministers, treasury heads, central bankers, investment bankers, economists and advisers of all prescriptions from 190 member countries.

Robertson told the Herald last week countries across the globe were grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Today he said there was agreement among the world's financial leaders that there would be a "difficult year ahead".

Asked about healthcare and emergency department wait times, Robertson said he was proud of how the health system had been supported through Covid-19.

On waitlist times, Robertson said there had been "huge pressures" this year. Covid had also seen high levels of illness and absence among staff.

This comes after the tragic death of a 4-year-old boy in a Wellington hospital last month.

Neil Sebastian "Sebby" Chua died on September 26 at Wellington Regional Hospital five days after he began complaining of a sore neck.

Parents Neil Arvin Chua and Abegail Chua have now lodged a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner concerning what they considered to be poor care for their son.

Robertson said earlier today Sebby's death was "absolutely tragic".

He said with reforms coming into place from July it was not expected results would be seen already. However, he said overall the Government had spent 40 per cent more money on the health system.

The Government has copped flak in recent weeks over emergency department wait times. According to Health NZ, just 76 per cent of patients were being seen within six hours across the June quarter - well under the 90 per cent target.

This was down from over 90 per cent when Labour came into Government in 2017.

Data accumulated by the National Party shows the target was largely met up until June 2020, after Covid-19 hit. Wait times since then have risen substantially.

While Labour keeps track of the targets they are currently indicative only. Labour scrapped the target-led approach National developed.

National's health spokesman Shane Reti says their targeted approach needs to be brought back in.

Health Minister Andrew Little meanwhile says research showed they were ineffective as the numbers could be "manipulated" to show more positive outcomes.

Today Health NZ also revealed a major plan to clear a mounting backlog for health services and address wait times.

A Planned Care Taskforce, set up in May, delivered its final report today with 101 recommendations.

Officials will start working on 30 of the recommendations by December, while the others will take a number of years.

The report also highlighted the severe strain the system has been under.

The number of people waiting longer than 12 months for a first specialist appointment – after being referred by their GP – has increased over the course of the pandemic by 17-fold, from 253 to 4255 patients.

To the end of June there were 5555 patients waiting for treatment for more than 12 months, an increase of 1832 over three months. This increase has not been shared equitably, with 53 per cent increase in the number of Māori waiting more than 12 months compared to 49 per cent for non-Māori.

Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand's chief executive Margie Apa said new systems were brought in and pressure easing had seen this situation already improving.

As of October 17, there were 2069 patients waiting to be scheduled. There were 1622 people scheduled to receive treatment and the remaining had been treated, discharged or returned to their GP.