The Opportunities Party (TOP) has proposed a plan to strengthen New Zealand’s public health services - taking a ‘public health’ approach to healthcare, resolving labour shortages and investing in key areas that improve outcomes for everyone.

Through her experience as a children’s and emergency doctor in Auckland, Dr Nina Su, TOP’s Health Spokesperson and Candidate for Epsom says “healthcare workers have pursued a career in health with one vision - to help other people.”

However, Su adds “our core health services are under real strain with healthcare workers facing high rates of burnout and depression. After years of under-investment and mismanagement, we need to strengthen our public health services - with a focus on ensuring the right services are affordable and accessible to everyone.” 

“Healthcare is more than just medicine and surgery; it’s about how our environment and society is structured to enable people to reach their potential. We want to see all ministries take a public health approach to government policy.”

The Opportunities Party's Health Policy includes:

• Strengthen workforce retention of all healthcare workers by ensuring they have fair liveable wages and safer hour rosters.
• Increase placements at medical, nursing and dentistry schools.
• Introduce an accelerated post-graduate medical programme for people who have completed clinical or science degrees.
• Support increased funding to the voluntary bonding scheme for nurses, midwives, doctors and all allied health workers.
• Support a fully funded ambulance service.
• Fully fund contraception (including long-acting reversible contraception).
• Fully fund antenatal ultrasounds (and associated GP visits), alongside more support for maternity services.
• Review funding model for primary care to empower more GP practices to provide fully funded care in the community (e.g. cervical screening and minor skin surgery).
• Support Te Whatu Ora to provide public GP practices in under-served rural areas that do not currently have a primary care provider.

Included in the health policy is a focus on key services for women, which Su describes as the next step towards a progressive health care system.

“Fully funding contraception and antenatal ultrasounds alongside support for maternity services would be a game-changer for women. Women would have more control over their reproductive health, improve their pregnancy outcomes, and reduce the financial burden of having a baby.” 

TOP also announced a proposal to improve rural health. Many rural communities have lost their primary care providers and have to drive over an hour to their nearest doctor.

“We can provide fully-funded GPs in our rural communities with a hybrid model of care that integrates highly-skilled paramedics and community nurses to provide care where it’s needed most. Our GPs are already highly skilled, and we need to resource them to provide fully-funded core health services in our communities that people live in. This would ease the burden on secondary care and specialist services.”

You can learn more about our policy proposals here.