Overworked doctors say the Ministry of Health has failed to communicate a plan to deal with the coming wave of other winter illnesses, like flu, whooping cough and RSV.
At his practice in Porirua, Royal New Zealand College of GPs medical director Dr Bryan Betty was unequivocal about the current demands on GPs.
"General practice is very much at capacity. GPs are dealing with a very, very large workload," he said.
Doctors are overseeing the care of tens of thousands isolating at home - and say routine care like overseeing mental health issues, diabetes and cancer care is being compromised.
And now the risk of flu, RSV and whooping cough approaches - right when we're opening up the borders.
"The Ministry and the Government does need to start providing clarity over what is going to happen over the next three, six, 12 months. We need to see a strategic oversight of how to deal with the backlog of issues," Dr Betty says.
Auckland University vaccinologist, Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris, says every year these other winter ailments kill people - and usually we're in better shape to face them.
"I think we are going to be caught at a time of great weakness," she says.
For example, when it comes to whooping cough, only 53.4 percent of Maori aged six months are vaccinated, 66.8 percent of Pacific babies and overall only 74.1 percent of all infants.
"We've got burnt out healthcare. We've got very low vaccine uptake and we've got a whole bunch of diseases that are knocking on the door," Prof Petousis-Harris says.
When it comes to flu, the Government has ordered extra vaccines.
Last month, the Government said it would make available an extra 250,000 free flu vaccines this season. But it'll be critical to avoid the confusion and frustration of two years ago when the public was told to "get vaccinated" - only to find their GPs didn't have any in stock.
"We want to make sure we're well-prepared for waves that are likely to come during the winter season, when flu [and] RSV will also be present," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
But Dr Betty says those preparations, including resourcing and support for GPs, are yet to be communicated.
"So we need to plan this and think ahead at this point."
He says that's to ensure we avoid another health crisis, because flu season is less than three weeks away.
