New Zealand 2026 election: GP access, hospital waiting times, staffing and funding

For the 2026 New Zealand general election, the key health-policy questions are how parties would make it easier to see a GP, reduce delays for specialist appointments and planned surgery, recruit and retain enough health workers, and pay for improvements to the health system.

It's important to distinguish between promises to increase capacity, targets for faster treatment, and actual funding commitments. A party may promise shorter waiting times, for example, without specifying how many extra doctors or nurses it will employ or how much additional money it will spend.

1. How the major parties compare

The following summarises the main proposals published or reported by 26 October 2026. The election is scheduled for 7 November 2026, so these are campaign commitments, not guarantees of delivery. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

National Party

Capacity and targets

• GP access: Expand online, urgent and after-hours care; Budget 2026 supports a further 53,000 general-practice enrolments.
• Hospital waits: Use both public and private providers to deliver more planned treatments. Budget 2026 provides for a further 24,000 planned-care treatments, 42,000 additional inpatient episodes and 26,000 additional emergency-department events.
• Staffing: Increase medical training places at Auckland and Otago universities and establish the Waikato graduate medical school, with its first 120 students planned for 2028.
• Funding approach: Continue the current direction, using targets and additional service capacity while maintaining fiscal restraint. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

New Zealand Labour Party

Affordability and access

• GP access: Three free GP or nurse consultations per year through a new Medicard; a Family Doctor Loan Scheme offering up to 50 loans annually to help doctors buy into practices; and a target of freeing up more than 4.5 million GP appointments each year through phone triage, technology and targeted funding.
• Hospital waits: An emergency-department recovery plan to move patients into hospital beds faster, address staffing and discharge bottlenecks, prepare for winter demand and support older people recovering at home.
• Staffing: Guarantee jobs from 2027 for eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurses—around 2,400 graduates a year—and end the current hiring freeze.
• Funding approach: A targeted 28% capital gains tax on specified property profits, with revenue ring-fenced for health. Labour's 2026 Election PoliciesRelease: Labour will get emergency departments movingElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

Green Party

Major funding expansion

• GP access: Move towards free, publicly funded primary and dental care, backed by community, mobile and rural services.
• Hospital waits: Strengthen hospital and emergency care while investing in prevention and community services to reduce avoidable hospital demand.
• Staffing: Train, recruit and retain more doctors, specialists, nurses, allied health professionals and support workers; emphasise safe staffing, better working conditions and pay parity.
• Funding approach: Announced an additional NZ$3 billion per year for four years, or NZ$12 billion in additional funding over that period, as part of its fiscal plan. Greens to deliver more staff, shorter wait times and a healthier country with significant health investmentElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

ACT New Zealand

Choice and productivity

• GP access: Allow pharmacists and other health professionals to handle more routine conditions, tests and ongoing care within their professional scope.
• Hospital waits: Increase use of private providers to reduce public waiting lists, with more emphasis on productivity and measurable outcomes.
• Staffing: Make better use of the existing workforce by expanding professional scopes of practice; ACT also supports the Waikato medical school.
• Funding approach: Prioritise efficiency and choice. Its medicines policy would increase the share of the health budget spent on medicines by one percentage point annually, funded from existing health spending. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

New Zealand First

Direct waiting-list fund

• GP access: Easier entry into general practice for appropriately registered doctors, nurse practitioner-led digital clinics in hard-to-staff areas, less administration and greater GP autonomy.
• Hospital waits: An annual NZ$925 million GP-controlled Waitlist Reduction Fund would allow GPs to purchase approved specialist consultations and operations for patients on waiting lists.
• Staffing: Estimates that about 2,000 additional doctors are needed and would prioritise international recruitment.
• Funding approach: The proposed waiting-list fund is a specific annual commitment. NZ First also proposes replacing Pharmac with a new medicines agency and adding NZ$1.3 billion for medicines. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

Te Pāti Māori

Māori-led and whānau-centred care

• GP access: Emphasise accessible, culturally safe, community- and whānau-centred services.
• Hospital waits: Prioritise prevention and whānau wellbeing to reduce crisis-driven care, alongside stronger Māori-led health services.
• Staffing: Emphasise Māori participation and Māori-led delivery; a specific quantified workforce expansion commitment was not evident in the policy summaries reviewed.
• Funding approach: Focus on shifting resources towards prevention and Māori-led health provision. A directly comparable, quantified overall health-funding commitment was not evident in the sources reviewed. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

Opportunity Party

Long-term funding reform

• GP access: Increase the share of health spending directed to primary care and prevention.
• Hospital waits: Pursue a cross-party, 10-year health plan intended to improve the system's long-term capacity.
• Staffing: The available policy summary does not specify a comparable numerical staffing target.
• Funding approach: Increase health spending from 7.4% to 9% of GDP through its proposed 10-year plan. NZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

2. What do the funding commitments mean in practice?

The clearest difference is between parties proposing to spend substantially more overall, parties earmarking money for specific services, and parties seeking better results from existing resources.

Party	Main funding commitment	What it is intended to achieve
National	Budget 2026 funding for additional treatments, hospital activity and GP enrolments	Increase service capacity and meet health targets
Labour	Ring-fenced revenue from a targeted 28% property capital gains tax	Make primary care more affordable and fund additional services
Greens	NZ$3 billion extra annually for four years	Rebuild capacity, improve staffing and strengthen primary and hospital care
ACT	Shift existing health spending towards medicines and improve productivity	Expand treatment options and make better use of available resources
NZ First	NZ$925 million annually for waiting-list reduction; NZ$1.3 billion additional medicines funding	Purchase more specialist consultations and operations and widen access to medicines
Te Pāti Māori	Greater emphasis on Māori-led services and prevention	Improve equitable access and community-based care
Opportunity	Increase health expenditure from 7.4% to 9% of GDP over its proposed 10-year plan	Establish a more stable, long-term funding path

Sources: party policy summaries and the New Zealand Medical Journal's October 2026 election analysis. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident DoctorsGreens to deliver more staff, shorter wait times and a healthier country with significant health investment

Important qualification: these figures are not directly comparable. Some are annual additional expenditure, some are spending targets, and some are funding for specific programmes. They should not be treated as equivalent totals or as money already spent.

3. Which proposals address staffing most directly?

Staffing is central to whether any of these promises can work.

• Graduate nurse employment: Labour's guarantee is a direct response to the problem of newly qualified nurses struggling to find jobs while hospitals report staffing pressure.
• Training more doctors: National's expanded medical-school capacity is a long-term investment. The Waikato programme's first intake is planned for 2028, so it will not immediately resolve shortages.
• Recruiting doctors from overseas: NZ First places greater emphasis on international recruitment and estimates that around 2,000 additional doctors are needed.
• Retaining staff and improving conditions: The Greens explicitly link safe staffing to pay parity, reasonable workloads and better employment conditions.
• Making better use of existing clinicians: ACT emphasises pharmacists and other health professionals taking on more clinical work, alongside greater use of private providers.
• Expanding the GP workforce: Labour's practice-ownership loans and appointment-capacity proposals aim to make it easier for GPs to establish or remain in community practices.

These approaches tackle different problems. Training takes years, international recruitment depends on available workers and registration, and employing graduates helps only if funded jobs and appropriate supervision are available. Election 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryRelease: Labour will get emergency departments movingElection 2026 and health: promises, priorities and deliveryNZ Election 2026 Health Policies for Resident Doctors

4. How will you know whether the promises are working?

New Zealand already has a national primary-care access target: more than 80% of people should be able to obtain an appointment with a general-practice provider within one week, with the target intended to be achieved by 2030. Initial national results are expected in late 2026. Primary care health target

For voters comparing the parties, the most useful measures are:

• GP access: How long patients wait for an appointment, whether they can afford it, and whether they can enrol with a practice.
• Hospital waiting lists: How many patients receive specialist assessments and planned operations on time—not just how many procedures are performed.
• Emergency departments: How long patients wait to be assessed and admitted, and whether staffing and bed capacity improve.
• Workforce: Net increases in employed doctors and nurses, vacancies, retention and safe staffing levels.
• Funding: Whether additional spending is genuinely new, whether it keeps pace with population growth and costs, and whether it pays for the staff and facilities needed to deliver care.

The distinction matters because free GP visits do not automatically create more appointments, and funding extra operations does not automatically provide the surgeons, nurses, beds and recovery services needed to perform them.

Bottom line

• For cheaper GP visits: Labour has the clearest specific proposal, with three free consultations a year.
• For a substantial increase in overall health funding: The Greens have made the clearest quantified additional annual spending commitment.
• For directly purchasing more treatment for people on waiting lists: NZ First has the most explicit proposal through its NZ$925 million annual fund.
• For expanding private-sector capacity and shifting routine care to other providers: National and ACT put more emphasis on capacity, provider choice and productivity.
• For long-term workforce growth: National emphasises medical training, Labour graduate nurse employment, NZ First overseas recruitment, and the Greens training, recruitment and retention.
• For Māori-led and whānau-centred healthcare: Te Pāti Māori puts this at the centre of its approach.

These are differences in policy emphasis, not a definitive ranking of which party will deliver the shortest waits. The decisive questions are whether each plan has enough funding, enough workers, and a credible timetable for turning promises into appointments and treatment.

For further detail, the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association's 2026 election policy comparison and the New Zealand Medical Journal's election health analysis provide useful starting points.