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• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown announced new investments in urgent care services nationwide.
• The Budget allocates $164 million over four years for urgent and after-hours care improvements.
• Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey said the funding will benefit rural communities, ensuring 98% access within one hour’s drive.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown announced a blitz of investment in urgent care across the country.

Speaking from Botany this afternoon, Luxon and Brown detailed new 24/7 urgent care services in Counties Manukau, Tauranga, Whangārei, Palmerston North and Dunedin, and new daytime urgent care services in Lower Hutt, Invercargill and Timaru – among other investments.

The funding for the initiatives appears to be new – in a sense. In the last Budget, the Government announced it would be increasing the health Budget with a cumulative $16.68 billion over the next three Budgets. Additional pieces of that spend are dropped into the health system each Budget, so while the funding is technically new this year, the public was told it was coming last year.

This Budget invests $164 million over the four-year forecast period into urgent and after-hours care nationwide.

“We’re investing in new and extended urgent care services across the Central region to ensure people can get the right care, at the right time, closer to home,” Brown said.

“These improvements will make it easier for New Zealanders to get help when they need it – whether late at night, on weekends or in more remote communities, while also reducing pressure on emergency departments,” he said.

Christopher Luxon (right) and Simeon Brown at the announcement at East Care in Botany. Photo / Dean Purcell

Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey said the investments would improve healthcare for people living in rural and remote communities.

Kiwis living in rural and remote communities will benefit from a significant funding boost to urgent and after-hours healthcare services, Doocey said.

“Access to healthcare is one of the biggest concerns for people living in rural and remote communities.

“Our Government is committed to ensuring all New Zealanders can get the care they need, when they need it – no matter where they live. This investment will bring healthcare closer to home for more people,” he said, adding that the investment would mean “98% of Kiwis will be able to access [urgent and after-hours care] within one hour’s drive of their home”.

Where the investment will go:

Key Budget 2025 initiatives for the Northern region include:

• A new 24/7 urgent care service identified for Counties Manukau by late 2025.
• A new 24/7 urgent care service identified for Whangārei from 2026.
• Maintaining all existing urgent and after-hours healthcare services in the region.
• Extended after-hour services identified for Dargaville, Hokianga, Kaitāia and Wellsford.
• Improved services for rural and remote Northland communities, including better access to diagnostics, urgent medicines, and 24/7 on-call clinical support.

Key Budget 2025 initiatives for the Midland region include:

• A new 24/7 urgent care service identified for Tauranga by mid-2026.
• Maintaining all existing urgent and after-hours healthcare services in the region.  
• Extended after-hour services identified for Thames, Whakatāne, Tokoroa, Gisborne, Taupō, Te Kūiti and Hāwera.
• Improved services for rural and remote Midland communities, including better access to diagnostics, urgent medicines and 24/7 on-call clinical support.

Key Budget 2025 initiatives for the Central region include:

• A new 24/7 urgent care service identified for Palmerston North by mid-2027.
• A new daytime urgent care service identified for Lower Hutt, building on the existing after-hours service in late 2025.
• Maintaining all existing urgent and after-hours healthcare services in the region, with capability to extend hours in central Wellington.  
• Extended after-hour services identified for Dannevirke, Masterton, Levin and Wairoa.
• Improved services for rural and remote communities, including better access to diagnostics, urgent medicines and 24/7 on-call clinical support.

Key Budget 2025 initiatives for the South Island include:

• A new 24/7 urgent care service identified for Dunedin by late 2025.
• A new daytime urgent care service identified for Invercargill and Timaru, building on the existing after-hours services.
• Maintaining all existing urgent and after-hours healthcare services in the region.
• Improved after-hour services identified for Alexandra, Ashburton, Balclutha, Golden Bay, Gore and Ōamaru.

Pay equity overhaul

The announcement comes after a bruising fortnight for the Government, which has defended its decision to use parliamentary urgency to retrospectively overhaul the existing pay equity regime, saving “billions” according to ministers.

Just how much money was saved – and will therefore no longer be heading into the pay packets of hundreds of thousands of workers – has remained classified, with Luxon and other ministers refusing to declassify the figure.

This is despite the Government continuing to reveal other spending in pre-Budget announcements.

Labour said that women working in the funded sector were unlikely to get pay equity. The funded sector refers to services funded by the Government but delivered by someone else, often a private provider or a charity. It includes hospice works and Plunket and refers.

Labour had agreed to underwrite these pay equity settlements when it was in Government, accepting the funded sector could not pay for them itself.

Labour pointed to comments made by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden in Parliament, in which she said last year’s pay equity reset undertaken by Finance Minister Nicola Willis “suggested that the funded sector would not be funded by the Government for pay equity”.

The Cabinet paper for that reset suggested a clampdown on funding – however, it actually suggested finding additional funding to “increase baselines in support of pay equity cost pressures on the funded sector”.