The healthcare sector is hoping for significant investment from the Budget for its workforce but is calling on a change of approach to how that money is spent.
The Government will release the 2022 Budget on Thursday afternoon, where Finance Minister Grant Robertson will unveil $6 billion in new spending.
Newshub revealed on Tuesday it's expected the Government will announce a significant investment in Māori health in the Budget.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director, Sarah Dalton, told AM Early she is hoping this year's Budget will be the first of many big investments in healthcare.
"We think the signals are positive, but it needs to be the first of several years of very big budgets for health if Health NZ and the Māori Health Authority are going to have a go at doing some of the things they have been tasked with doing," Dalton told AM Early host Bernadine Oliver-Kerby.
"Particularly at making access to health care more equitable and the outcomes more equitable so more New Zealanders get the care they need in a timely fashion and near where they live.
"They are huge goals when we have substantial workforce shortages and in some parts of the country, certain types of care simply aren't available."
Dalton said even if the sector receives a significant amount of investment in this year's Budget, there will need to be a change of approach to how money is spent.
"When we are on Budget day and we're talking about large sums of money, let's think about where we can do the most good," Dalton told AM Early.
"We need to stop pretending that our public health services have to make profits or bring in surpluses, that's been the narrative around the DHBs for a long time now but they are not businesses they are public institutions charged with delivering healthcare for the people who need it.
On Monday, thousands of healthcare workers took to the streets around the country, to strike over pay.
It comes after a last-minute offer to divert the strike was turned down by their union - the Public Service Association (PSA).
Dalton hopes the Government will reveal significant investment in healthcare workers.
"At the moment, the signs are not good. We've been in pay negotiations ourselves for over a year now, possibly with an end in sight but not a particularly savoury one," Dalton said.
"Every other healthcare union is in the same position, which means every healthcare worker you might encounter, certainly in a hospital setting and also in a number of community settings has been going without any pay increase at all and is often working for substantially less than their colleagues in the private sector or working overseas in Australia particularly, which is a real problem and worry for us now that the borders have opened up. "
Dalton believes health employers have not been acting in "good faith".
"If that [is the] approach to the workforce as people that we say we value, but we actually don't, when push comes to shove, then things are going to be very hard to fix."
Watch the full interview with Sarah Dalton above.
