Hi John,

As we’ve navigated the pandemic together, I’ve been extremely grateful for everything our healthcare professionals and frontline workers have done to help us tackle the virus and protect the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

The past few months have highlighted just how important a modern and well-funded healthcare system is to the safety of our people and the stability of our country; it's not something we can take for granted. 

When we came into Government, we inherited a health system under serious strain. Every day, our hardworking doctors and nurses were going to work in rundown, leaky hospitals and aging health facilities, without the resources or funding they needed, thanks to years of underinvestment by National. This was not something we were willing to let continue. 

Our Government got straight to work rebuilding our health system. In just three years, we’ve made record investments in our hospitals and mental health services, boosted funding for medicine, increased suicide prevention services, made doctor’s visits cheaper for more than half a million people, set up a dedicated Cancer Control Agency, and so much more, so that more New Zealanders can access the quality care they need, when and where they need it.

I’m really proud of all the progress we’ve made so far, but I know there’s more to do, especially as we continue our COVID response. That’s why today, I outlined the next steps in our plan to ensure better healthcare for all New Zealanders, if we’re re-elected in October.

Our plan includes:

• Mental health support in every state primary and intermediate school
• A funding boost for PHARMAC, which will mean more publicly-funded medicines for more New Zealanders
• An additional $200m to reduce waiting lists, helping to ensure no one misses out on the care they need
• Better access to dental care, by increasing Work and Income emergency grants and investing in extra mobile dental clinics so more young people can access care
• Doubling the number of publicly-funded cochlear implants
• A long-term reform of the health and disability system, to make sure every New Zealander can get high quality healthcare when and where they need it

We’ll also continue to roll out our investment in mental health and our hospital rebuild programme, and allocate significant funding for business-as-usual cost pressures.

We’re committed to making sure every New Zealander gets the quality healthcare they deserve. The changes we need will take time, but our plan will help us make sure that our health system is even stronger, as we continue to navigate through COVID and future proof our society. 

I’ll be back in touch soon to let you know more about how we’ll build back better as we recover from COVID-19. In the meantime, you can read more about today’s health announcement here.

Thanks,

Jacinda

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