Podcasts about health new zealand

Health NZ reveals the roles and locations they are targeting for the 2026 intake of the Voluntary Bonding Scheme. Robyn Shearer, Health New Zealand's executive national director of people, culture, health and safety, spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss about the initiative.

Hundreds of Auckland home support workers could lose their jobs after their contracts were cut. Health New Zealand has decided not award tens of millions of dollars in support contracts to community based not for profit providers, Visionwest, Lifewise and Presbyterian Support Northern. The latter, which provides services under the name Enliven, will lose a contract worth $19 million a year. Presbyterian Support Northern Chief Executive Shaun Greaves spoke to Lisa Owen. 

Pushback from Health New Zealand, who are assuring that patient needs are being met despite fresh staffing concerns. The agency's released data for almost 740-thousand shifts last year, showing around a quarter of shifts across 615 wards were below the target staffing level at some point. Nurses Organisation CEO Paul Gaulter says Health New Zealand should resource and staff to need. But the agency's Chief Nurse Nadine Gray told Mike Hosking patient safety is their top priority. She says they expect high-quality care to be offered to every patient who walks through their doors. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Healthline has called in reinforcements to cope with a deluge of calls following a surge in flu like illnesses. The boss of Health New Zealand says the entire system is under pressure from the biggest flu outbreak in years. Flu related hospitalisations are at a 10 year high in Auckland. Wakarongorau Aotearoa operates Healthline, Chief Operating Officer Brian O'connell spoke to Lisa Owen.

Auckland's had its worst week for flu related hospitalisations in a decade; 177 people admitted across four of the city's hospitals. Health New Zealand says 188 elective surgery were cancelled to free up resources, following a surge in respiratory cases. University of Otago Professor of Public Health Dr Michael Baker, believes more could have been done sooner - including stronger advice about masks. Dr Michael Baker spoke to Lisa Owen. 

Nursing graduates who have applied for hundreds of jobs and haven't found work say it is devastating to hear there is a shortage of nurses. The nurses union says our health system is falling into a deeper crisis with emergency departments and wards bursting at the seams. It follows revelations that Health New Zealand has hired just 54 additional full time equivalent nurses in the past two years. The situation is driving some graduates to consider making the move to Australia, joining their course mates who have already left. Bella Craig reports.

One calls it a miracle. The other calls it a mess. Two Kiwi women operated on by the same surgeon on the other side of the world came home with vastly different outcomes. Health New Zealand calls the operation experimental and dangerous, warning patients not to go overseas for it. But as investigative journalist Anusha Bradley reports, both women feel they had no other option.

Health New Zealand is urging the country to brush up on the symptoms of meningococcal disease after it caused the death of a young adult in Waikato. National Public Health Service clinical director of protection Dr Susan Jack spoke to John Campbell.

A Palmerston North Emergency Department doctor has put out a plea for help to Health New Zealand after an extraordinarily busy day. Patients contacted Checkpoint to say they had been waiting 17 hours, but when Checkpoint spoke to Doctor Dusty Bratton he said others had been waiting even longer than that. Bratton spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.

In this in-depth VSRF Live interview, New Zealand whistleblower Barry Young recounts how he went from trusted senior Oracle database administrator at Health New Zealand to facing a potential seven-year prison sentence. After building and maintaining the national COVID vaccination payment system, he observed clear clusters of deaths in the data. When internal warnings were ignored, he made a protected disclosure and later released fully anonymised records. Barry explains that the actual criminal charges have nothing to do with leaking data - they relate solely to routine database exports he performed as part of his job weeks earlier. Nearly 1,000 days after his dramatic armed-police arrest he still has no trial date. He details how the original protected-disclosure email was hidden for almost a year, how forensic evidence collapsed under scrutiny, and how Health New Zealand's own top lawyer declared any examination of the mortality data “unnecessary” while elevating a non-existent privacy breach above potential loss of life.

Today, the 111 call out and the fact that St John is absolutely under the pump and has been for quite some time and they're not expecting it to finish anytime soon. On Saturday, 2,562 calls came into the ambulance through 111 the highest number received ever in a single day. But then that was the third time the daily record had been broken in a week. Just last week, the record number of 111 calls was set, then surpassed, then surpassed, then surpassed again and they're not expecting that to go anytime soon. A mate of mine pretty much saved the life of our mutual friend. She was at her flat, suddenly stricken, like off the couch in agony. Her flatmate called 111, time was ticking by, nothing was happening. So he rang my friend Les in absolute despair and said what the hell do I do, she's in agony. Les whizzed round there and then rang the ambulance service and asked where the ambulance was. And she said I can't tell you that and he said yes you can because you've got GPS, where is the ambulance? She said I can't tell you that. And he pushed her and pushed her until finally she admitted there was no ambulance on the way, they didn't have one. But she didn't want to tell him that, I don't know why. As soon as he heard that he just hung up, he and the flatmate scooped up Soph, whizzed her to the hospital and she'd had a brain aneurysm. It was touch and go but she has made a full recovery and is back to the beautiful vibrant soul she is, but it really was touch and go. If Les hadn't pushed, they'd have sat there waiting for an ambulance and Soph would have died. There'll be a hell of a lot more stories like that out there after the past two weekends. As I said, it was a record number on Saturday, 2,562 calls, a normal day would see around 1,900 calls. According to Doug Gallagher, who's the St John Director of Ambulance Operations, not all cases need an ambulance. And he's right. After I smashed my arm into a million pieces, the next day, it was an uncomfortable night I grant you, but the next day I was still able to take a taxi from Leigh to a 24 hour medical centre on the North Shore. It wasn't a fun hour and if I'd been in an ambo perhaps I would have had some pain relief which would have been greatly appreciated, but I got it once I got to the 24 hour clinic and once there it was a completely straightforward process of them going ooh, no, I think that needs to be x rayed, oh, I think we'll go to hospital for that one, and off we went. So probably people don't need an ambulance. When something drastic happens, your first thought probably is oh I better ring an ambulance. And I suppose when I hurt my arm, I didn't even think of an ambulance because we were so far away, we were out in the seaside, at a seaside resort. And I didn't think there'd be any point in ringing an ambulance, I'd wait till the morning and get a taxi and go in from there. Possibly you could travel under your own steam. And I just wonder why people instantly think 111. As Mike said this morning when he was talking to Doug Gallagher, there are a lot of time wasters, but Doug Gallagher said well I wouldn't call them that. Wasting the time's not the term to use. I think people struggle sometimes with not being able to access the right part of the health system. But there are options there, Healthline, online GP portal, people can find those through the Health New Zealand website. I think that's the issue that people struggle to navigate the health system at times. Is that what it is? Why would the first, I mean if you don't have a vehicle and you don't have any money, and there's a few people like that, then an ambulance may well be your only option if you think it's serious. But in the first instance, what do you do? I've called the Healthline before and it's been very helpful. I did think I'd probably need to get my arm set, but I didn't need an ambulance for that. I couldn't drive, but I could take a taxi and I did have the money to take a taxi. Not everybody does. Do you think it's drummed into us to call 111 in an emergency or why is it that so many people see the ambulance as the first response? And you are asked to pay if you can when you take an ambulance, so you might as well hop in a cab or an Uber if you think there's something really wrong and needs checking out. That's a lot of calls in a day. I would love to know how many of them were absolutely essential where people may well have died if they didn't get that ambulance ride to the hospital. I'd just be interested to know what the advice is. Like Doug is saying navigate the health system, well so okay you ring Healthline and they answer pretty quickly. They might be able to give you advice. Is it just panic when something happens? Like oh my god, what do I do? They're in terrible pain, I don't know how to deal with it, I'm going to ring the ambulance rather than I'm going to ring Healthline and see if this is something I can manage myself. I'd really love to hear your experiences. I mean in my mate's case, Les's case, if he hadn't got Soph to the hospital she wouldn't be here and that's that. How many cases are like that with an ambulance or are people using it because they have no other options? And what is the medical advice? I mean if in doubt ring an ambulance, is that really the advice that St John would give? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Almost a million notifications didn't get sent to women eligible for cervical cancer screening, after a new register was set up in 2022. A Health New Zealand review into the national screening programme says it's not an effective safety net and made 48 recommendations for change. Dr Bev Lawton, who has been a driving force in women's health and improving access to cervical screening, spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

EDITORIAL: I want to start off with some honesty this morning - when I read this story this morning, I had two choices. I could read it, shake my head, get angry to myself and move on. I could say, "Well, there you go. Another emergency department horror story. Another report. Another apology. Another promise it'll never happen again." Because, sadly, we've been talking about this stuff for years. Or I could do what I think we have to do, and that's keep talking about it. I will speak about these stories as many times as it takes. Because if we stop talking about it, we start accepting it. And I refuse to accept it. Think about this for a second. A 55-year-old man walks into Wellington Hospital with burning chest pain. The pain is radiating into his left shoulder. He's got a family history of heart attacks. He's got elevated blood pressure. Every alarm bell should have been ringing. We've all seen the TV ads, we understand them. Instead, he waits. And he waits some more Not 30 minutes. Not an hour. He waits four and a half hours before he's seen by a doctor. More than five hours after arriving, an ECG finally confirms he's having a heart attack. Five hours. The Health and Disability Commissioner has now ruled that Health New Zealand failed to provide an appropriate standard of care. They didn't need AI for that did they? The investigation found he should have been treated as a higher priority and should have had an ECG during his initial assessment. This is not earthmoving, is it? On that night the emergency department was running at 200 percent occupancy and was ten nurses short. Now look, I know the staff in our emergency departments work incredibly hard. I know they're under pressure. I know there are hundreds of stories where nurses and doctors perform miracles every single day. This is not about blaming the people on the floor. This is about a system that keeps putting good people into impossible situations. Because here's what really gets me. That man could have been me. He could have been your husband, your wife, your dad, your mum, your brother, your sister or your best mate. None of us thinks we're going to be the one sitting in an emergency department waiting for someone to realise we're having a heart attack. And that's what scares me. I'm also tired of hearing what they're going to do. We're always promised reviews, action plans, better training, audits and future improvements. Fine. But at some point the promises have to be results. Because this isn't about politics. It isn't about headlines. It's about whether, when the worst day of your life arrives, a health system, the New Zealand health system, is there when you need it. And right now, I don't think that's a question any of us would be comfortable asking. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's reports of cockroaches and fleas at Auckland Hospital - and one patient took a tumble. Patient Claudia Elliot says she hit her head, after seeing a cluster of cockroaches in her shower. "I managed to crush one of them and tried to get the other two, and that's when I slipped and fell." The Heath New Zealand website says cockroaches thrive in unhealthy environments, and transmit disease. RNZ reports Health New Zealand's received about 140 complaints about fleas at Auckland sites in the past year. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this landmark full interview, Barry Young - the senior Oracle DBA who built New Zealand's COVID pay-per-dose vaccination database - tells his complete story.Fully supportive of the rollout at the beginning, he describes how he began seeing statistically impossible clusters of deaths linked to the same sites and days, including walk-in centres across all age groups.After making a protected disclosure to Health New Zealand's executive leadership team, he faced swift retaliation: an armed police raid, physical injury, and years of legal warfare.Barry details the burying of key evidence, the Crown's refusal to show the data to the judge, the personal anguish of carrying the knowledge for years, the colossal financial incentives of $30–35 per shot, and why the case ultimately boils down to one simple question - is he a whistleblower or not?He ends with a direct appeal to Winston Peters and a message of resolve: “Either way, we're going to win.”Support FreeNZ:Substack: https://freenz.substack.com/Locals: https://freenz.locals.comBuy Me A Coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/supportfreenzKo-fi: https://ko-fi.com/freenzhttps://freenz.carrd.coEmail: freenewzealand[at]protonmail[dot]com for bank account details.Affiliates:Dioxi Care - Chlorine Dioxide based Oral Care, Skin Care & Veterinary & Wound Care: https://frontierpharm.com/?sca_ref=9717384.brQladA5pgSnoot Spray - Chlorine Dioxide based Nasal Cleaner: https://www.snootspray.com/?sca_ref=9667634.AV2NJQvGlTBlock Blue Light - Red Light Glasses, Full Spectrum Lightbulbs & Sleep Tools to optimise your light environment and prioritise your wellbeing: https://www.blockbluelight.co.nz/?ref=FreeNZMediaWide Awake Media - Freedom T-Shirts: https://wideawake.clothing/en-nz?sca_ref=9458851.1aXfjvGDqL

A Southland man who needs regular surgeries to repress the growth of cancer on his kidney says he ws left in the dark for months after his latest operation was abruptly cancelled. It follows the resignation of two urologists earlier this year, as well as what Health New Zealand describes as unanticipated absences in the department. Now, Southland health advocates are worried about what the future holds. Otago Southland reporter Katie Todd reports.

Health New Zealand is celebrating meeting its nursing target, with 1800 roles being offered to graduates over the next year. The organisation says there's a wide range of opportunities across the country – including at hospitals and with primary, aged, and community providers. It says this is essential to building a sustainable long-term workforce across the health sector. Chief Nurse Nadine Gray told Mike Hosking most studying nurses can be confident there will be a job available once they graduate. She says this has been the case for most students coming out of university and polytech in the past year. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Follow the evidence, and the evidence shows that vaping helps people quit smoking. That from ASH, in reponse to a Wellington's main stop smoking service quitting, because it refuses to give out vapes. Takiri Mai Te Ata Trust parted ways with Health New Zealand after the refusal and will no longer get funding. ASH Director Ben Youdan spoke to Lisa Owen.

New national guidelines are being developed for assessing and monitoring patients in emergency departments following the death of a man in the Waikato Hospital ED. Following a rapid review of the incident Health New Zealand says the death was an acute unexpected incident. Health NZ Executive National Director - Clinical, Dr Richard Sullivan spoke to Lisa Owen.

Health New Zealand has confirmed Waikato Hospital's Emergency Department was under some strain when a patient died. A man who couldn't be revived after being found unresponsive last week had been waiting for hours. A review's found he had an acute unexpected incident that wouldn't have been prevented by more monitoring. Health NZ Clinical Executive National Director Doctor Richard Sullivan says it was a busy day, with two wards closed to new patients because of a bug. "The third issue on that particular shift was that they were four doctors down from the 12 they had planned to have on that day, and that was because of sickness." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data from Health New Zealand shows the number of homeless people being hospitalised has doubled in six years. The number has leapt from just under a thousand in 2018/19 to close to 2000 in 2024/25. Dr Bruce Arroll, a GP at Auckland City Mission's Calder Centre spoke to John Campbell.

Health New Zealand is investigating the death of a man at Waikato Hospital who had been waiting hours to be seen. The man arrived at the emergency department on Monday night, and was later found unconscious, and was unable to be revived. Cath Cronin, Health NZ executive regional director for Midland spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

A leading blood cancer specialist with more than 30 years' experience says he's leaving New Zealand for Australia, due to unsafe staffing levels. Terry Taylor has resigned from his specialist cancer diagnostic role at Dunedin Hospital's pathology lab – frustrated by the lack of a national plan to recruit and retain scientists. Taylor told Mike Hosking he knows his departure won't help the situation, but he's been trying to improve it for many years. He says after the pandemic, the country had an opportunity to reset everything – however he's been banging heads with Ministers and Health New Zealand instead. Taylor says about six blood cancer specialists have left their roles in the past six months, from a total of about 10. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Health New Zealand has been adding extra staff and beds and increasing community care to get ready for the pressures of winter ills.

The Health Minister says it's a complex task to unclog the issue of ED wait times. Progress is being made on the Government's health targets, with all five areas improving year on year in the March quarter. However some progress is incremental, with EDs seeing a 0.2% rise to 74.4% of patients being admitted, discharged, or transferred within six hours. Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking there's no single solution. He says it needs to be made easier to see a GP, which they've done with a big uplift in funding and more after hour care like the new centre in South Auckland. The Health Minister says they're looking to keep using private hospitals as much as they can to reduce wait times. Brown says Health New Zealand's looking at longer term contracts with providers to get more delivery and better value for money. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Health New Zealand faces a $190 million bill to process holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of current and former workers. Collectively, $1.8 billion is budgeted to repay those affected by the miscalculations. Unions are scathing of the cost of meeting the repayments, and of the process itself, which has been plagued by delays. But Health NZ said the work is complex and time-consuming and requires to comb through years of records on the different payroll systems inherited from district health boards. Jimmy Ellingham reports.

Serious mistakes led to an 11-year-old Maori autistic girl being misidentified as an adult mental health patient, before she was restrained and twice injected with anti-psychotic medications. Dr Richard Sullivan, who's Health New Zealand's Executive National Director, Clinical spoke to John Campbell.

The government has announced it will increase funding for aged care. Residential care providers will receive an additional $79 million from Health New Zealand. Tracey Martin from the Aged Care Association spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Host Paul Spain sits down with Jonathan Good, Co-Founder and CEO of Scentian Bio, to dive into the "digitisation of smell and taste “and what it means for industries in New Zealand and beyond. Jonathan shares about the realities of fundraising both locally and abroad, and the challenges and opportunities of bringing cutting-edge chemical sensing technology to market.Plus, Paul and Jonathan explore the latest tech news, including:Health New Zealand's Hybrid Cloud MigrationSpark's Verified Call Feature Against ScamsWorkday's Go Platform expands to NZ & AU2degrees' Shaping Business Study 2026Is AI More Expensive Than Humans?UN Report warns of the Environmental Impact of AIA big thank you to our show partners One NZ, Spark, Workday, 2degrees, Fortinet and Gorilla Technology.

Three reports have been released today analysing the breach of Health New Zealand's patient portal Manage My Health. In December, hundreds of thousands of medical files were stolen in a cyber-attack which is being described as one of the country's biggest cyber security incidents. Reports into the breach found a litany of issues were responsible, including a lack of security, lack of independent checks and a lack of any privacy or security specialists. Which all sounds quite, well, lacking. So we wanted to find out how you can trust your data is safe. Frith Tweedie, a partner at SimplyPrivacy, an online privacy and AI governance consultancy, chats to Jesse.

The Privacy Commissioner has issued a damning report into the hacking of the Manage My Health app - private information of almost 100-thousand New Zealanders was stolen in the breach in December last year. The Commissioner highlighed significant failures by Health New Zealand and Manage My Health, issuing both with compliance notices .. and recommending law changes to strengthen accountability. Health NZ Chief Financial Officer Bevan McKenzie spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists believes fewer people are receiving care than we're being told. Its new report —which looks at seven districts between 2023 and 2025— shows about 20% of GP specialist referrals are being declined. Executive Director Sarah Dalton told Mike Hosking it's down to staff shortages across the public and private sectors. She says it shows Health New Zealand isn't managing unmet need, and criticises the fact our targets-focused system doesn't provide targets for the workforce. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We need to talk about what Chris Hipkins has said about immigration. First of all, Labour can frankly shut up accusing the Nats of anti-migrant rhetoric because this is a party that hasn't got a leg to stand on when it comes to migration. This is the party - and some of the very same people are still there - that campaigned on reducing immigration by up to 30,000 people in 2017, produced a list of Chinese-sounding names two years earlier and then shut down immigration completely, only to do the opposite by opening it up too much during and after COVID. So, on immigration - glass houses etc. But having said that, what National is proposing to do on immigration should worry businesses up and down this country that rely on migrants. And I'm looking at you - the aged-care sector wanting to bring in Filipino workers to look after our elderly; and I'm looking at you, Health New Zealand, needing to employ Indian nurses; and I'm looking at you, the construction sector, needing to bring in general labourers. Because Chris Luxon has made it clear in his speech he's shutting his door to businesses wanting to lobby him for migrant workers. He said: “My message to the business community is that when it comes to immigration, when I'm faced with a choice between social stability and your bottom line, I will choose the former every single time.” Now that begs the question to the Prime Minister: what does “social stability” mean? Is that basically you saying we've got too many Indian migrants? Which then begs the question: is National trying to match New Zealand First's anti-Indian rhetoric to avoid losing voters to them? Which then logically begs the next question: is Luxon putting his vote share at the election ahead of New Zealand's need to bring in the workers that we know we need? Because we've been through COVID, and we know that we do not do these low-skilled jobs - you need migrants to do them. So I think we should all be worried about this. I think businesses in New Zealand, in particular, should be very worried about this. And it begs a final question: if this is the position that National has taken, is there now even a single party in Parliament that is looking after New Zealand businesses? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Woolworths in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere, has applied for a licence to sell alcohol seven days a week from 9am to 9pm. In its submission Health New Zealand say Flaxmere is a vulnerable community with high levels of deprivation and it's opposed the licence. Submissions on the application by Woolworths have been heard this week, Lawyer Grant Hewison, who is a member of Communities against Alcohol Harm spoke on behalf of a concerned resident. Hewison spoke to Lisa Owen.

A call tonight for a full independent review of a privately owned Southland lab service, after doctors twice missed signs a woman had cancer, delaying her treatment. She died a year later. Awanui labs failed to detect the 74 year old retired nurse had stomach cancer, despite analysing multiple biopsies, with cancer cells present. The lab is privately owned but is contracted by Health New Zealand to provide medical laboratory and pathology services. Advocacy group, Patient Voice Aotearoa wants an urgent wide ranging of the lab service, it's chair Malcolm Mulholland spoke to Lisa Owen.

Health New Zealand spent just over $216 million on locum doctors last year, up from the nearly $209 million spent in 2024, and just over $186 million in 2023. Health NZ clinical national director Dr Richard Sullivan says they are aiming to hire more permanent staff. But, Sullivan told Mike Hosking, locums will likely always be necessary, "getting people in certain parts of the country is a problem, always has been a problem, probably always will be a problem." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More Kiwis are signing up for nursing courses but there are concerns job opportunities aren't keeping up. Latest Ministry of Education data shows almost 18 thousand people were enrolled in nursing courses last year. About 34 thousand are studying other health courses. Nurses Society National Director David Wills told Mike Hosking the country is facing a health funding bottleneck, which has been making it very difficult for graduates to get roles in the past 18 months. He says Health New Zealand's trying to employ as many as possible and is subsidising the private sector to take on new graduates. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new proposal from Health New Zealand would allow community pharmacists to assess and treat children with conditions like scabies, head lice and conjunctivitis, pain and fever. General Practice New Zealand chair Dr Bryan Betty spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

The latest push is a partnership between Health New Zealand and the College of GPs to attract doctors from overseas, focusing on those with UK medical qualifications. 

On call doctors and health workers are asking Health New Zealand to cover their travel costs as petrol prices head in one direction. The medical workers include junior doctors, MRI techs, psychologists, and lab scientists, who are called in outside their normal work hours, meaning they're often making repeat trips to hospital or other work sites. Apex national secretary Dr Deborah Powell spoke to Lisa Owen.

Two care worker unions are taking legal action against Health New Zealand, with the fuel crisis hitting their members hard. Health correspondent Kate Green reports.

New advice from Health New Zealand says many people don't need regular Covid boosters. Immunisation Advisory Centre medical director Nikki Turner spoke to Corin Dann.

There are concerns poor planning has contributed to the tsunami of demand on kidney disease treatment. Hospitals across New Zealand are struggling to keep up with life-saving dialysis treatment. Health New Zealand told 1News there's been a lack of funding in some parts of the country. General Practice NZ Chair Bryan Betty told Mike Hosking this problem was predicted 15 years ago, but no one planned ahead. He says it's driven primarily by a surge in diabetes, and if it's not addressed it will undermine the health system going forward. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are hopes faster emergency care will ease pressure across the health system. In the three months to October, about 74% of ED patients were admitted, discharged, or transferred within six hours. That's up from about 72% a year earlier. Health New Zealand Chief Clinical Officer Richard Sullivan told Mike Hosking teams are working hard to manage patient flow, as EDs are handling up to 7% more patients than last year. He says they're working to strengthen primary care, but the pressure is coming from illness in an ageing population and outbreaks. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 400,000 Kiwis have reported experiencing long-covid in newly-released figures from Health New Zealand. Larisa Hockey from Long Covid Support Aotearoa spoke to Corin Dann.

A push to decentralise the health system is at 'extreme' risk because of workforce shortages, according to a Health New Zealand internal report. RNZ's Phil Pennington spoke to Corin Dann.

The latest Health New Zealand figures show 50 hospitalisations and 19 deaths with the virus in the past week. Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

The former board chair of Health New Zealand is warning health inflation is spiralling and the government needs to pivot its thinking in response. Former board chair of Te Whatu Ora Health NZ Rob Campbell spoke to Corin Dann.

A former board chair of Health New Zealand warns that health inflation is rapidly rising and urges the government to consider how it will respond. An Auckland property developer says the housing market is unlikely to see significant growth soon, noting there is already sufficient land available for apartment development. We also look at the new passport and visa requirements for travellers to the UK, as confusion lingers over what the changes mean. The CEO of Golden Bay Air discusses becoming the first airline to access the government's new regional aviation loan scheme, and a Wellington café owner shares concerns about the hospitality sector, saying it needs an extra boost to regain momentum.

Waikato district nurses say they're at the end of their tether as demand for their services soars. District nurses, who provide care for patients in the community rather than in hospitals or clinics, say they're severely understaffed and it's causing in burnout, stress and leading to widespread resignations. They also say it's putting their safety at risk. It comes as WorkSafe considers a complaint from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation that Health New Zealand's failure to improve district nurses' working conditions amounts to a breach of the Health and Safety Act. Bella Craig reports.