The clinic’s community liaison manager, Lorenzo Kaisara, said the queue had progressively got worse in the five years he’d worked there.

Health outcomes for people in rural areas aren’t as good as those in the bigger centres, hence the need for skilled professionals who have the ability to do a little bit of everything but can also recognise when their patients need more specialist care.

A new report about rural primary care identifies inequities in service provision, major pressures on funding and workforce, unsustainably high levels of clinical risk, and barriers for patients to access care when and where they need it.

Tai Rāwhiti's largest GP clinic has been forced to cut its after-hours and weekend service because it cannot afford it.

The crisis in Tairāwhiti primary healthcare is another warning of the looming collapse of primary healthcare in New Zealand unless drastic action is taken, says Dr Angus Chambers, Chair of the General Practice Owners Association (GenPro).

Two child protection watchdogs have written to Oranga Tamariki asking it to spell out its rationale for cutting millions of dollars of contracts for services to children.

A return to a more regionalised health system will ease the dire staffing problems facing Northland's rural hospitals, Health Minister Shane Reti says.

The costs of groceries have risen at historically high rates over the past six years, making it virtually impossible for families on benefits to feed children healthily, new research finds.