A severe flu surge is putting general practices under growing pressure across parts of Aotearoa, with entire households becoming sick, healthcare workers being knocked out of action and patients presenting with serious complications including pneumonia.
General Practice New Zealand says the current outbreak is exposing weaknesses across the health system well before patients reach emergency departments or hospital wards.
The organisation has launched Hauora 2036 – Building the Health System We Need Together, a 10-year blueprint calling for a major shift towards prevention, early intervention and healthcare delivered closer to home.
Flu hitting patients and the workforce
The pressure is particularly visible across the Tū Ora Compass Health network, which provides primary healthcare services to about 371,000 enrolled people across Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua, Wairarapa and Kāpiti.
Practices are dealing with large numbers of calls and messages from households affected by influenza, including patients developing warning symptoms, chest infections and pneumonia.
The outbreak is also hitting the people expected to provide that care.
At one central Wellington medical centre, eight members of a small team have been affected by flu, including one worker who remained unable to return after more than two weeks. GP illness has forced clinics to be cancelled and contributed to longer waiting times.
GPNZ says the experience demonstrates why primary care and hospitals cannot be treated as separate parts of the health system.
Hospital beds and additional staff remain critical when serious illness surges, but reducing the number of people who deteriorate to the point where they require hospital treatment is equally important.
Prevention before the emergency department
At the centre of Hauora 2036 is a relatively straightforward goal: people should be able to receive healthcare when they need it, get assistance before illness becomes a crisis and know hospital treatment will be available when serious illness occurs.
The blueprint proposes strengthening general practice and community-based healthcare while improving connections between primary care, hospitals, community providers and social services.
It also identifies equitable access for rural and underserved communities as an important part of the proposed transformation.
The argument is that strong primary and community healthcare doesn’t compete with hospital investment — it protects it.
Preventing illness, improving vaccination coverage, managing chronic conditions and identifying deterioration earlier can reduce the number of patients eventually requiring emergency or inpatient care.
Winter programme shows demand for early intervention
GPNZ points to the Tū Ora Compass Health Winter Wellness Initiative as an example of how a more preventative system could operate.
The programme delivered 1,633 proactive consultations this year for people with respiratory conditions who were considered at greater risk of becoming seriously unwell during winter.
Patients received planned support including medication and vaccination reviews, health goals and action plans to better manage conditions including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Demand was strong enough that the programme finished earlier than expected after its available funding was fully used.
GPNZ argues programmes like this demonstrate both the demand for preventative healthcare and the problem with relying on short-term initiatives to deliver it.
Instead of rebuilding a response every winter, it wants prevention and early intervention permanently embedded into the health system.
Election 2026 challenge for political parties
The release of Hauora 2036 also puts health firmly into the Election 2026 debate.
GPNZ wants greater long-term stability in health policy, arguing repeated changes in direction make it harder to develop the workforce, infrastructure, services and community relationships required to produce lasting improvements.
Its challenge to political parties is effectively to find common ground around a long-term health strategy extending beyond the three-year electoral cycle.
That includes investment in hospitals, but also a much stronger front line capable of keeping people well and treating illness earlier.
For whānau, the test is ultimately much simpler: can they see a doctor when they need one, can they afford that care, and can they get help before a manageable health problem becomes an emergency?
The current flu surge is providing another reminder that pressure on Aotearoa’s hospitals often begins much earlier — at the doors of general practices already struggling to keep up.
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