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For the 2026 New Zealand general election: How do parties plan to improve GP access and hospital waiting times, and what have they said about staffing and funding?
New Zealand 2026 election: GP access, hospital waiting times and health funding
Policy snapshot: October 2026 · General election: 7 November 2026
New Zealand's parties are offering different approaches to two closely linked problems: getting a timely appointment with a GP and reducing delays for hospital treatment.
The main divide is over how to expand access. Labour and the Greens emphasise reducing the cost of primary care; National emphasises increasing service capacity and meeting measurable targets; ACT supports wider use of pharmacists and private providers; and NZ First proposes a dedicated fund to help patients on specialist and surgery waiting lists. Opportunity and Te Pāti Māori offer alternative approaches to funding and delivering care. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryAccess to GPs and primary careHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026
The comparison below draws on parties' published policies and a health-sector review published on 9 October 2026. These are campaign commitments, not guarantees of what a future government will deliver.
1. How the parties propose to improve GP access
National
More capacity, digital access and workforce training
- Expand access to online and after-hours GP services.
- Support additional GP appointments through targeted primary-care funding and technology.
- Increase the supply of doctors through expanded medical training, including the Waikato medical school, and pathways for overseas-trained doctors.
- Increase the range of conditions pharmacists and other health professionals can manage.
National's approach is to make existing and additional health resources go further, rather than introduce universal free GP visits. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryAccess to GPs and primary care
Labour
Three free GP visits per year
- Introduce a Medicard providing three free GP or doctor/nurse consultations annually for each person eligible for publicly funded healthcare.
- Offer up to 50 loans annually to help doctors buy into owner-operated general practices, starting in July 2027.
- Free up more than 4.5 million GP appointments a year through phone triage, technology support and targeted funding.
- Expand nursing capacity through a Graduate Nurse Job Guarantee.
Labour argues that reducing fees needs to be accompanied by measures that expand the number of appointments available. It says its health package would be funded through a targeted capital gains tax. 2026 Election Policy SummariesLabour's 2026 Election PoliciesLabour's 2026 Election Policies
Green Party
Move towards free, publicly funded primary care
- Transition GP clinics and other essential health services towards fully funded public provision, free at the point of use.
- Increase recruitment and retention across the health workforce.
- Improve pay, staffing conditions and workload, including for primary-care nurses and hauora providers.
- Strengthen Māori-led services and community-based care.
The Greens' approach is a broader change to how primary care is funded, rather than a fixed number of free visits. 2026 Election Policy SummariesElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
ACT
Expand the range of professionals providing care
- Enable pharmacists to treat more everyday conditions, manage long-term conditions, order blood tests and adjust medicines within limits set by a GP.
- Remove barriers to opening new pharmacies.
- Support greater use of private and community providers, with an emphasis on efficiency and clinical outcomes.
This model aims to increase the effective capacity of the system by allowing different health professionals to take on more work. 2026 Election Policy SummariesElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
New Zealand First (NZ First)
More flexible local and digital services
- Recruit more doctors internationally; the party estimates about 2,000 additional doctors are needed.
- Develop nurse practitioner-led digital health clinics in areas where staffing is difficult.
- Reduce administration and give GPs more autonomy.
- Introduce health coaches into primary care.
NZ First has not made universal free GP visits its main 2026 commitment. Its headline funding proposal is aimed at people waiting for hospital treatment. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026
Te Pāti Māori
Affordable care and Māori-led delivery
The party supports free primary care and dental care for whānau earning under $60,000, alongside a Māori Health Card model linking funding to the patient. Its broader approach places emphasis on Māori governance and the delivery of services designed around whānau needs. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026
The Opportunities Party (TOP)
More primary-care funding and long-term planning
- Negotiate a cross-party, 10-year health plan.
- Increase the share of health funding going to primary and preventive care.
- Progressively increase total health spending to 9% of GDP.
- Provide free primary healthcare for under-30s through its proposed Teal Card programme.
TOP's central argument is that primary care needs more stable funding and that health planning should extend beyond a single parliamentary term. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026
2. How the parties propose to reduce hospital waiting times
| Party | Main approach |
|---|---|
| National | Increase planned-treatment capacity using both public hospitals and private providers; track performance through health targets. Budget 2026 was intended to support 24,000 additional planned-care treatments, as well as additional inpatient and emergency-department activity. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery |
| Labour | Improve the flow of patients through emergency departments, increase GP appointments and nursing capacity, and repair hospital buildings and essential systems. Its ED Recovery Plan is part of its broader healthcare package. Labour's 2026 Election Policies2026 Election Policy Summaries |
| ACT | Use private providers and greater service efficiency to reduce elective-treatment backlogs. It also proposes national cancer-centre campuses in Auckland and Christchurch, supported by a mix of private investment, public-private partnerships and existing health funding. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors |
| NZ First | Establish a $925 million annual GP-controlled Waitlist Reduction Fund, allowing GPs to purchase approved specialist consultations and operations for patients waiting for treatment. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery |
| Greens | Strengthen publicly funded services, community care and the health workforce. The party also emphasises prevention and improving access to treatment, rather than relying solely on hospital throughput. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors |
| Opportunity (TOP) | Increase investment in primary and preventive care through a long-term, cross-party health plan, aiming to reduce the need for more intensive hospital treatment. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery |
| Te Pāti Māori | Emphasise Māori-led healthcare, equitable access and whānau-centred services. The published material reviewed here does not establish a directly comparable, quantified national hospital-waitlist reduction target. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026 |
One important distinction: a hospital waiting-list policy is not necessarily a promise of a shorter wait for every patient. Funding extra procedures, improving emergency-department flow and reducing the number of people who need hospital treatment are different interventions.
3. What parties say about staffing
Staffing is central to whether any of these plans can work. New funding alone cannot create more GP appointments, operating-theatre sessions or specialist consultations if there are not enough qualified staff.
National: Expand medical training, including the new Waikato graduate-entry medical school, and use recruitment pathways and different professional roles to increase capacity. The first Waikato cohort of 120 students is planned for 2028, so this is a longer-term measure rather than an immediate solution. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryAccess to GPs and primary care
Labour: Guarantee jobs for eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurses from 2027, expand GP capacity through its family-doctor loan scheme, and increase nursing and emergency-care capacity. It also proposes 24 paid trainee sonographer positions. Labour's 2026 Election Policies2026 Election Policy Summaries
Greens: Increase entry into health professions and retention, support Māori to train as health professionals, and improve pay parity, workload and employment conditions. It proposes training and employing more therapists to reduce therapy waiting lists. NZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors
ACT: Broaden what pharmacists and other professionals can do within their scopes of practice, allowing doctors to concentrate on work requiring their expertise. Its approach focuses more on effective use of existing capacity than on a large new public-sector staffing programme. NZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident DoctorsElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
NZ First: Prioritise international doctor recruitment, estimating that New Zealand needs around 2,000 additional doctors. It also proposes nurse practitioner-led digital clinics in areas that struggle to attract staff. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
Opportunity: Treat medical education, specialist training, clinical placements and workforce planning as part of a 10-year strategy, rather than allowing them to change substantially with each election. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
Te Pāti Māori: Emphasise Māori participation in training, governance and healthcare delivery, as part of its broader focus on equitable services. A directly comparable national staffing target was not established in the sources reviewed. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryHealth Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026
4. How they propose to pay for healthcare
The funding question reveals some of the clearest differences between the parties.
National — targeted investment within existing fiscal priorities
National's Budget 2026 measures are intended to expand treatment capacity, while its broader approach emphasises fiscal restraint and getting more out of health spending. It has also proposed a $604 million increase in the medicines budget, funded through reduced foreign aid spending outside the Pacific. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery2026 Election Policy Summaries
Labour — new tax revenue for affordability and access
Labour says its affordable-healthcare package, including free GP visits, free prescriptions, the ED Recovery Plan and nursing commitments, would be funded by a targeted capital gains tax. It proposes removing the $5 prescription charge from July 2027. Labour's 2026 Election PoliciesLabour's 2026 Election Policies
Greens — a larger publicly funded system
The Greens propose moving towards fully funded, free public healthcare, including GP and dental services. That implies a broader public funding commitment than Labour's three-free-visits model; the detailed fiscal implications would need to be assessed against the full policy costing. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors
ACT — reprioritisation and mixed funding
ACT proposes increasing the share of the health budget spent on medicines by one percentage point each year, reaching 12% in 2033, funded from baseline health spending. Its proposed cancer centres would combine private investment, public-private partnerships and existing health funding. NZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors
NZ First — a dedicated hospital-waitlist fund
NZ First's proposed $925 million annual Waitlist Reduction Fund would give GPs purchasing power to arrange approved specialist consultations and operations. The practical questions include how patients would be prioritised, what services would qualify and how the fund would interact with existing public and private capacity. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
Opportunity — increase total health spending
TOP proposes a 10-year cross-party plan that would increase health spending from a stated baseline of 7.4% of GDP to 9% of GDP, with a greater share allocated to primary care. This is a system-wide funding goal, not a hospital-waitlist appropriation alone. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery2026 Election Policy Summaries
Te Pāti Māori — funding shaped around Māori health needs
Its proposals emphasise Māori-led provision and targeted access to primary and dental care, including the Māori Health Card model. The sources reviewed do not establish a directly comparable total funding commitment for reducing hospital waiting times. Health Policy: Where NZ Parties Stand in 2026Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
5. What to compare when assessing the promises
The New Zealand Medical Journal's October 2026 election analysis highlights an important implementation issue: making care free does not automatically make appointments available, and extra hospital funding does not automatically create more clinicians or operating capacity. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and delivery
Four questions help distinguish the proposals:
- Immediate access: Will the policy create more appointments and treatments in the next year or two, or mainly increase workforce supply over a longer period?
- Staffing: Are there specific plans to recruit, train and retain the doctors, nurses and specialists needed to deliver the extra services?
- Funding: Is the proposed spending additional, funded by a new revenue source, or redirected from existing budgets?
- Accountability: Are there measurable targets for appointment availability, time to specialist assessment, elective treatment waits and the number of patients treated?
For a fuller comparison, two useful independent resources are the NZ Resident Doctors’ Association's 2026 health and workforce policy guide and Policy.nz's 2026 party policy comparison.
In summary: the key difference is not simply who promises more healthcare spending. It is whether parties prioritise making GP visits more affordable, expanding the workforce, purchasing more hospital treatment, or increasing the overall public funding of the system. Those choices will shape both how quickly people can see a GP and how long they wait for hospital care.
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