(file image) Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A leading surgeon is calling on politicians to stop using the health system for "point-scoring" and work together to treat health inequities in rural regions.
Association of General Surgeons president Vanessa Blair, who works in Northland, said services were particularly dire in rural regions.
RNZ has recently reported Dargaville Hospital's night doctor has been replaced with telehealth, while patients are waiting six weeks or longer for GP appointments.
"There needs to be a cross party accord about health to stop the political football treatment," Dr Blair said.
"It's an insult and a moral injury really to the whole medical profession, or anyone working in health."
The problems of workforce shortages, underfunding and "postcode healthcare" were not new problems, Dr Blair said.
"We need those in power to have those tough discussions about what healthcare we are prepared to fund as a country."
A spokesperson for Health Minister Shane Reti said he worked "collaboratively", but a cross-party accord was "not on the agenda".
Health Minister Shane Reti Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
"He is currently very firmly focused on his planning to improve the health system for the benefit of all New Zealanders."
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said the previous government had "redesigned the health system so that we could start to address these inequities".
"We got rid of the district health board model that consistently underfunded provincial DHBs so there were gaps in what they could afford to pay staff compared with metropolitan DHBs.
"But we also had to fight off Covid. Coming out of that, yes, there were a lot of aspirations in the rural health strategy that we wanted to get on to, but of course we didn't have the opportunity coming out of the election."
Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says the two major parties have fundamentally different attitudes towards health provision. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Dr Verrall said she did not see how a cross-party accord could work in view of the fundamentally different attitudes towards health provision between the two parties.
"The importance of our health system should be something that's not in dispute across political parties.
"But we've seen some pretty enduring political norms in our country cast aside by this government - for example, basically slandering the Health New Zealand Board - I don't think that's the sort of behaviour that's conducive to good bipartisanship agreement on things."
However, the real issue underpinning the country's health woes was funding, and "any consensus on tax policy looked a long way off".
While the government continued to claim a "record boost" to the health budget, it had not kept up with either population growth or increasing costs, Verrall said.
"Every New Zealander is funded 4 percent less for their healthcare under this government than they were under the last Labour Government's budget."
"I'm quite certain that the Labour Government wouldn't have been in that position because we didn't promise the same high level of tax cuts as the National Party did."