Health officials are pressing pause on factoring in ethnicity as a priority for medical waitlists.

Te Whatu Ora began including it in a new medical waitlist criteria in Auckland, alongside clinical priority, time spent on the waitlist, location and deprivation level.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said earlier that there is now no plan to implement the criteria at nationwide level.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the publicity from ZB's earlier article stopped the Government in their tracks and put the requirement on ice.

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