Health investment must reach every region.
Earlier this week, we shared the National Infrastructure Plan’s clear message that hospital investment must take priority over large transport projects. There is another important point in that message: health investment must reach regional communities, not just major centres.
Wairoa shows what this looks like in practice. In a recent Newsroom analysis of the National Infrastructure Plan,acting doctors. Residents travel long distances for basic services at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, which itself is urgently in need of replacement.
As Dr David Galler says:
“We need to stop thinking in terms of big versus small projects. New Zealand requires a long-term programme that includes major hospitals in our cities and properly supported regional services. Both matter.”
Delivering more services locally is not straightforward. Staffing shortages, supply costs and the way larger hospitals can spread costs across more patients all inform how services are organised. Some highly specialised services are best delivered in larger centres. But planning must also ensure communities have reliable access to essential care closer to home.
Recent Treasury advice has signalled that increasing debt to invest in long-term infrastructure can be justified. Health must be part of that commitment.
A clear national decision now, in this year’s planning and Budget, could establish a long-term programme that includes both major hospital builds and a commitment and investment to establish network of services to meet the needs of all patients, whether in cities and towns or more rural areas.
Public healthcare is an essential infrastructure. The question is whether we are prepared to plan and fund it across the whole country.
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