Just as the winter ills and chills arrive, it's been revealed New Zealand is critically short of general practitioners (GPs) meaning hundreds of thousands of Kiwis can't access community care.
A briefing to Health Minister Dr Shane Reti shows Aotearoa is short nearly 500 GPs.
It comes as an already struggling health system is being inundated with respiratory sicknesses as winter sets in.
General Practice NZ chairman Dr Bryan Betty told AM the situation was "critical" at the moment.
He noted two major issues - an "absolute" shortage of GPs across the country and a funding system "that's not fit for purpose".
"General practice has been under-invested in over the last decade or two and as a result of that we're seeing real constraints in terms of the delivery of general practice across the country," he said.
"About quarter of a million New Zealanders - that's 250,000 - cannot sign up with a GP across this country and access medical care in the community. It is a dire, critical situation."
Dr Betty said many practices across Aotearoa were closing as they don't have the capacity to safely provide medical care.
"This has become a real, real issue over the last five years and one that the Government does need to address."
The shortage comes as cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, are on the rise.
Dr Betty said every winter pertussis can circulate in the community, with 30 to 40 cases across New Zealand recently.
He said it was a "potentially very serious disease", especially for babies under six months old who may not be immunised.
"It can cause a very severe cough, make them very unwell and in the worst cases can actually cause death.
"Again, it demonstrates the problem when this is occurring if you can't get access to medical care in the community - often things can be left until they're late and patients have to present to emergency departments and in many cases have to be admitted to hospital."
Earlier on AM, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon discussed his Government's plans to open a open a new medical school in Waikato and get more people into the industry from overseas.
Dr Betty said the new medical school, which would have a focus on rural care, was a positive.
But he added that New Zealand was "very, very dependent" on overseas doctors, with 40 to 50 percent of the medical workforce overseas trained.
"However, we have a shortage of general practitioners across the world so we're actually competing with other countries like Australia, the UK, Canada, Ireland, who have all developed a shortage of general practitioners.
"So while we need to encourage GPs to come here we are competing in an international marketplace and for GPs coming here it needs to be a good place to work and a place that is backed by the system and supported by the system, and that's what's really, really important at the moment."
Currently, Dr Betty said morale was the lowest he'd seen in his time - but that's at an international level too.
"Around the country I'm hearing stories from GPs who are feeling very overworked, almost burnt out in terms of what's actually happening, and feeling quite concerned about what's going on and where this is going to go," he said.
"Certainly, there's been representations to the Government that they need to take this situation very seriously because in order to have a very functioning, high-performing medical system that actually delivers to New Zealand and produces health outcomes we have to have a very robust, strong general practice sector.
"Certainly, at the moment GPS are feeling under pressure, they're feeling burnt out and feeling very, very concerned about the present situation."
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti told Newshub he was aware of global shortages in the health workforce, which applies to GPs too.
"It's why our Government is prioritising building a home-grown, culturally competent workforce for New Zealand," he said.
"Already, for more doctors, we've already taken an important step forward by signing an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) and moving to assess the business case for a third medical school, at the University of Waikato.
"There's still a lot of work to do but we are determined to have more doctors trained in New Zealand, for New Zealand.
"New Zealanders have been facing longer and longer delays in accessing healthcare, and tackling our workforce crisis is key to solving that issue."
The Minister also said he valued the insights of Dr Betty very much, noting his recent appointment to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on workforce.
