The Front Page: Is NZ getting enough value from its $30 billion health budget?

Healthcare staff have been calling for more staff and resources for years. Photo / Getty Images

Health is the single biggest item in the New Zealand Budget every year – and yet, the health sector is consistently plagued by myriad issues.

The health Budget for 2022/3 was about $30 billion, which equates to about $5800 per New Zealander.

“It’s up 84 per cent from what it was five years ago,” BusinessDesk investigations editor Victoria Young tells The Front Page podcast.

“Over the next five years, that’s actually expected to go down because we’ve had those Covid years.”

Despite the level of spend, we’ve seen wait times increase, health professionals work unsustainable hours and widespread calls for more staff and funding. A Government-commissioned report by the Sapere Research Group found last year that general practices need a funding increase of up 231 per cent to function properly.

With the Government currently focused on bringing together DHBs into a single entity, this issue has not been deemed a priority. Young says that the struggles faced by GPs have led to corporates taking over many practices around the country.

“Whether that’s right or wrong, it’s going to make a difference because retiring GPs don’t want to keep running these businesses. They’re mortgaging their houses to run things, so why not let a corporate take over and get cost efficiencies? It’s difficult to see how that’s going to play out in terms of funding and what might happen next.”

While New Zealand’s public health sector is applauded for giving access to free healthcare, the sector itself has long been reliant on the corporate world to keep things ticking along.

“In general, there’s always something publicly provided, a sort of bare minimum provided by the DHBs. The extent to which they outsource what they do is quite interesting. For example, the lab testing field is highly privatised. The DHBs are hardly doing anything. Our hospitals also outsource in terms of food, linen and those sorts of things. These are all provided by the private sector. Most people don’t even realise that.”

As the health sector evolves from the DHB setup to the Te Whatu Ora, the next question is how these relationships evolve and whether things improve for patients.

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast to hear Young break down the sometimes uneasy relationship between business and healthcare in New Zealand.