Hospital staffing shortages, access to specialist services and dementia care emerged as key concerns during a Kaikōura Electorate Meet the Candidates event hosted by the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce and The Marlborough Express on Monday night.
Candidates across the parties outlined approaches to improving healthcare in Marlborough, with differing views on how best to tackle the region’s most pressing issues following reports on Wairau Hospital’s staffing crisis last weekend.
Labour candidate Matt Flight said a lack of funding for hospitals was the primary driver of staffing shortages and local healthcare staff being overworked.
“Labour wants to reinvest back into the hospitals and healthcare in general, which will allow people to actually get jobs, which will allow people to start looking after more people in the room.
“Doctors and nurses are all struggling.”
He said Labour also had a focus on care workers and would provide a $4 pay increase from January 1, “because when the pay equity scheme was scrapped, they were forgotten about very, very quickly.”
National candidate Stuart Smith argued that “this is not a financial issue”.
“There is plenty of money for that.”
He said attracting healthcare workers to the region and retaining existing staff was Marlborough’s main challenge.
“The positions have been advertised for. We have difficulty getting people to come and work in regional New Zealand.
“We've got to make sure that our services remain here.”
He said his commitment to supporting the expansion of the Churchill Hospital Trust and its investment in the newest technology, such as a laparoscopic robot, would help attract more healthcare workers to the region.
He reported that 44 percent of procedures carried out at Churchill were off the public list, either directly from the public system or for self-funded patients, with its expansion relieving pressure on public services.
New Zealand First’s Jamie Arbuckle said his party’s emphasis would be on “preventative healthcare,” involving vaccines, cancer screenings and routine check-ups, as well as expanding aged-care services to meet the demands of Marlborough’s ageing population.
“At the moment, the government spends something like $32 billion, and a lot of that's at the bottom of the cliff on chronic illness.
“We want to see more spend over 3% of that budget on preventative healthcare.”
He also advocated for the development of dementia-care facilities in Marlborough.
ACT’s Tom Spooner agreed with the focus on prevention and said the “long-term saving is massive” when it comes to investing in care early on.
Healthcare was one of several issues debated during the forum, alongside immigration, artificial intelligence, sustainable tourism funding, economic diversification and energy affordability.
Marlburnians will have their say on 7 November, casting their votes alongside the rest of New Zealand in the 2026 general election.
