Michelle Thompson wants to talk to two new ministers without delay.
The Rural Health Alliance of Aotearoa New Zealand (RHAANZ) is calling for urgent meetings with the incoming health and primary industries ministers to help solve what it says is a serious rural health crisis.
Chief executive Michelle Thompson said RHAANZ has articulated its priorities and solutions in its rural health
road map, a 10 to 15-year plan for growing healthy rural communities, and looked forward to working with the new government.
"We are especially keen to pick up discussions on Labour's election promise to address core inequities of access to health services for rural people, and NZ First's election pledges to develop a national rural and provincial health services plan and to increase health research and development funding to 2 per cent of GDP over 10 years," she said.
"All three coalition parties have expressed a strong commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing services, reviewing primary care funding and the national travel assistance scheme, addressing rural health workforce issues, as well as an increased focus on resilience and prevention.
"This aligns well with the framework for rural mental health developed by RHAANZ and some of the early work we have done towards suicide prevention and we look forward to synergies with these policy commitments."
