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Press Release – Conservative Party The central problem is not simply how much New Zealand spends on healthcare. It is whether patients receive care in a reasonable timeframe. Health Policy – Supporting. . .
Press Release – Conservative PartyThe central problem is not simply how much New Zealand spends on healthcare. It is whether patients receive care in a reasonable timeframe. Health Policy – Supporting Evidence; Implementation1. Why Hospital Waiting Times Must Be the Number-One PriorityThe central problem is not simply how much New Zealand spends on healthcare. It is whether patients receive care in a reasonable timeframe. The policy should therefore measure success through patient outcomes and access, including:Elective surgery waiting times. Specialist appointment waiting times. Diagnostic delays. Cancer treatment access. Emergency Department turnaround. Hospital admission delays. Delayed discharge. Health NZ has reported more than 1. 3 million Emergency Department presentations in 2023/24, while nearly 2. 1 million people attended first specialist assessments. The Conservative approach should be to focus additional resources on increasing the number of patients treated rather than simply increasing expenditure. 2. Where The Money Will Come FromThe policy does not need to begin with a promise of substantially higher taxes. Budget 2026 provides more than $5. 8 billion in new Vote Health operating funding over the forecast period, including a further $1. 37 billion annual uplift for Health NZ’s frontline cost pressures. Total Vote Health funding for 2026/27 is approximately $33. 031 billion, with Health NZ funding for services of approximately $27. 154 billion. The Conservative argument should therefore be:New Zealand is already spending a very large amount on healthcare. The first question should be whether we are getting the maximum possible healthcare from the money we already spend. Funding for the waiting-time programme would come from five sources. A. Reduce unnecessary bureaucracyIdentify administrative expenditure that does not directly contribute to patient care. Savings should be redirected towards:Doctors. Nurses. Allied health. Theatre staff. Emergency Department staff. Diagnostic services. B. Improve procurementUse national purchasing power to reduce unnecessary variation and duplication in:Medical equipment. Supplies. Technology. Pharmaceuticals and services. External contracts. Savings should be retained within the health system and redirected to frontline care. C. Increase productivityHospitals should make better use of:Operating theatres. Diagnostic equipment. Hospital beds. Clinical staff. Extended-hours capacity where clinically appropriate. The objective is to treat more patients using the infrastructure already available. D. Purchase private capacity where it makes financial senseGovernment should compare the cost of creating additional public capacity with the cost of purchasing treatment from an accredited private provider. If an existing private operating theatre and specialist team can treat a patient sooner at a competitive cost, that capacity should be used. E. Targeted additional investmentWhere genuine workforce or infrastructure shortages remain, additional funding should be provided — but linked to measurable outcomes. More funding must produce more healthcare. 3. The Healthcare Workforce ChallengeNew Zealand has a genuine workforce challenge, but the situation is more complicated than simply saying there are not enough health workers. Health NZ’s current workforce analysis estimates a nursing shortage of approximately 2,250, although Health NZ explicitly cautions that workforce estimates have limitations and should not be treated as fixed targets. For doctors, Health NZ reports approximately 21,800 FTE doctors, with around 10,800 working in hospitals and 11,000 in the community. New Zealand has historically had limited domestic medical training capacity. There were 614 medical school places at the start of 2025, with additional capacity being introduced. Conservative ResponseWe should not simply attempt to recruit our way out of the problem. We should:1. Train more New Zealanders. 2. Retain more New Zealand-trained professionals. 3. Improve working conditions and career development. 4. Expand specialist and regional training. 5. Recruit overseas professionals where genuine shortages remain. 6. Make better use of the workforce we already have. Immigration – A Balanced ApproachImmigration should be discussed carefully because New Zealand currently depends significantly on internationally trained health professionals. In 2024, internationally qualified nurses represented 42. 6% of the nursing workforce. Health NZ notes that internationally qualified nurses have helped ease workforce pressure, while also identifying retention and specialist workforce challenges. International medical graduates represented approximately 42. 1% of practising doctors in 2025. Therefore, an immediate blanket reduction in health-worker immigration could make workforce shortages worse. The Conservative PositionControlled immigration, targeted to genuine national need. We should:Prioritise doctors, nurses and other critical professionals where genuine shortages exist. Maintain New Zealand registration and competency standards. -Reduce unnecessary delays in recognising appropriately qualified professionals. Increase domestic health training. Improve retention of New Zealand-trained professionals. Regularly review immigration settings against workforce demand and infrastructure capacity. Avoid relying on permanent high levels of overseas recruitment as a substitute for domestic workforce planning. New Zealand should recruit the health professionals it genuinely needs while building the domestic workforce required for the future. 5. Retention Is as Important as RecruitmentRecruiting more doctors and nurses is only part of the solution. The Medical Council has reported a significant difference in retention between locally and overseas-trained doctors. Its analysis found that only 28. 7% of overseas-trained doctors remained in New Zealand after five years, compared with 84. 9% of locally trained doctors in the cited cohorts. This reinforces the need to:Improve working conditions. Reduce unnecessary administration. Provide career development. Improve access to specialist training. Support rural and regional healthcare workers. Improve leadership and workplace culture. Make New Zealand an attractive long-term place to practise. Keeping a trained doctor or nurse is often more valuable than repeatedlyrecruiting replacements. 6. Emergency Department TurnaroundEmergency Departments are a critical part of the waiting-time problem. Reducing ED delays requires action across the whole health system. The policy should therefore address:Before EDBetter access to GPs. Community pharmacy services. Community healthcare. Appropriate urgent-care services. Inside EDFaster triage. Faster diagnostics. Appropriate streaming of patients. Faster specialist review. Better use of clinical staff. After EDFaster admission to hospital wards. Better bed management. Faster discharge when clinically appropriate. Stronger links with community and aged-care services. The goal is not simply to make patients move through ED faster. The goal is to remove the blockages that cause patients to wait unnecessarily. 7. Public and Private Healthcare PartnershipNew Zealand already has both public and private healthcare infrastructure. The Conservative policy should make better use of both. Where a patient is waiting for surgery and an accredited private provider has capacity, Government should be able to purchase that treatment where it is clinically appropriate and financially competitive. This avoids unnecessary duplication of infrastructure. Instead of asking:“Is this a public or private hospital?” the question should be:“Can this patient be treated safely, sooner and at a reasonable cost?”8. Domestic Training StrategyLong-term workforce security requires more New Zealand-trained professionals. The policy should support:DoctorsMore medical school places. More postgraduate training positions. More regional training. Incentives for shortage specialties. Rural and provincial training pathways. NursesMore nursing training capacity where shortages exist. Better student retention. Improved transition from education into employment. Specialist nursing pathways. Nurse practitioner development. Allied HealthExpand training and workforce planning for professions such as:Medical imaging. Anaesthetic technicians. Physiotherapy. Occupational therapy. Pharmacy. Rehabilitation. Diagnostic and technical services. Health NZ’s workforce plan already identifies the need to expand placement capacity for several specialist and allied health professions and establish rural training hubs. 9. AccountabilityAdditional funding should never be provided without accountability. Health providers should publish:Waiting-list numbers. Average waiting times. ED turnaround times. Number of procedures completed. Theatre utilisation. Cancellation rates. Staff vacancy rates. Patient outcomes. Funding should increasingly be linked to delivery and outcomes. Key principle:If taxpayers provide more money, patients should receive more healthcare. 10. The Conservative Health ModelOur model can be summarised in six steps:1. PRIORITISEPut waiting lists and Emergency Departments first. 2. REPRIORITISEMove money from unnecessary administration to frontline care. 3. EXPANDTrain more New Zealand doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals. 4. RETAINKeep experienced professionals in New Zealand. 5. USE CAPACITYUse public, private and community providers where they deliver safe, timely and cost-effective care. 6. MEASUREPublish results and hold providers accountable. Final Policy MessageNew Zealand does not necessarily need to spend endlessly more to fix healthcare. It needs to use the money and workforce it already has better, remove unnecessary barriers, expand domestic training, retain skilled professionals and use every available source of safe healthcare capacity. Where additional investment is genuinely required, it should be targeted and linked to measurable results. The Conservative Party’s promise is not simply to spend more on health. It is to deliver more healthcare for every dollar spent. Patients First. Faster Treatment. Stronger Workforce. Less Bureaucracy. 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