Charity Hackett, 68, was sorting recycling behind a community centre in west Auckland on 14 September when she found stacks of white boxes marked as hospital supplies. Printed expiry dates showed some kits had passed their dates by as much as five years; other packs had fresh labels slapped over older stickers.
Within days the photos Hackett posted to a local Facebook group had reached union organisers and hospital staff. The supplier named on the cartons, Pacific MedSupply Ltd., has supplied three Auckland hospitals under a NZ$42.7 million (about €22.5m) contract since 2024; the health authority that oversees the contracts, Te Ora Hauora, has suspended deliveries while it orders an urgent recall.
How the find unfolded
Hackett said she initially assumed the boxes were harmless surplus until she read the dates. "I took a photo and sent it to my daughter — she said ‘Mum, that’s not right’. I felt sick. These were hospital supplies, not rubbish,'" she told this paper. Hospital staff later confirmed the batch numbers matched consignments received through normal channels.
A former packing operative at Pacific MedSupply, Vinod Nagapan, described internal instructions he says he received earlier this year. "They told us to peel off the expiry sticker and stick a new date. I refused — I could not be part of it," he said. Vinod, who earns NZ$22.50 an hour (about €11.90), said he left the role after refusing to follow the practice.
They told us to peel off the expiry sticker and stick a new date. I refused — I could not be part of it.
Vinod Nagapan, former packing operative
Workers tell different story
Lennie H. Heidenreich, a night cleaner at a hospital that received deliveries from the supplier, said staff had been told by managers that stricter budgets meant more scrutiny of waste. "We’re paid so little that we’re asked to do extra without training — people felt pressured. I didn’t know they were changing labels, but we were told to save anything reusable,'" he said. Heidenreich, who has worked in hospitals for eight years, called for criminal and occupational‑health checks.
Dr Marama Tui, an infection‑control physician at a university hospital in Wellington, warned of the clinical risks. "Expiry dates and sealed sterile barriers are there because sterility and material integrity degrade. Using or storing items beyond their validated life raises the risk of device failure and infection," she said. Dr Tui said a formal review of cases where patients may have received such kits should start immediately.
Immediate fallout
Te Ora Hauora’s interim director, Kieran Ratu, told reporters the authority had ordered Pacific MedSupply to provide a full inventory and a chain‑of‑custody of affected lots within 72 hours and had instructed hospitals to quarantine supplies from the same consignments. "We have zero tolerance for any practice that puts patients at risk," Ratu said, adding the authority would consider contract termination depending on the review’s findings.
Pacific MedSupply issued a brief statement saying it had "initiated an internal review" and denied any deliberate misuse of sterile items, blaming an unnamed subcontractor for improper handling. The company did not answer questions about why expired stock was on site or who authorised relabelling. The Ministry of Wellbeing has opened a compliance probe and the union Te Hau Ora Workers demanded that the supplier’s senior management appear at a public hearing.
Charity Hackett, whose photos sparked the response, said she expects prosecutions if wrongdoing is proven. "I didn’t want people hurt because of someone trying to save a few dollars. If it’s true, the people who ordered this must be held accountable," she said. The recall and audit could stretch across other regions if matching batch numbers appear elsewhere.
