NZ health system urges public to use pharmacies, telehealth during flu surge

New Zealand's health system is in the thick of winter illness season. Over the past week, emergency departments, hospitals, ambulance services, and primary care clinics across the country have all reported a sharp rise in patients seeking treatment for seasonal respiratory and flu-related conditions. Health officials expect this surge to continue for several more weeks before subsiding.

The pressure is real enough that Dr Dale Bramley, chief executive of Health NZ, has made a direct appeal to the public: use the emergency department only when you genuinely need emergency care. "We are here when people need us," he said, "and we have also invested in many other ways of supporting people to get the right care they need." The message is not that people should avoid seeking help—it's that the system works better when non-urgent cases find their way to other parts of the network, freeing up ED teams to focus on the patients who truly require their expertise.

To manage this winter crunch, Health NZ has deployed a $25 million Winter Plan that began taking shape at the start of 2026. The investment has added several hundred full-time equivalent staff positions across the system and expanded hospital capacity. As of now, 103 additional beds have been delivered, with another 163 flex beds available when demand requires them. The system has also created hundreds of new aged residential care placements nationwide. These are not small numbers—they represent a deliberate effort to absorb the seasonal wave without buckling.

But the real strategy is not just adding beds and staff. It's redirecting people away from emergency departments toward alternatives that can handle common winter illnesses just as effectively. Dr Richard Sullivan, Health NZ's executive national director for clinical services, outlined the options: community pharmacies, online GP services, and Healthline, the free phone service that helps people figure out what they actually need. Since June, when Health NZ expanded the range of services pharmacists could provide, the uptake has been substantial. More than 32,000 people have visited participating pharmacies, completing over 26,000 consultations. Nearly 900 pharmacies nationwide—81 percent of all community pharmacies—now offer these extended services, which include treatment for common conditions, supply of certain antibiotics, emergency contraceptives, and pain relief medications where clinically appropriate.

Online GP services, launched in May 2025, have moved even faster. In just over a year, the service has handled more than 115,000 consultations for nearly 86,000 people, with 87 percent of patients receiving their full treatment online without needing to visit a physical location. From August onward, children aged 14 and under can access the service for free. The infrastructure is expanding too: 247 pharmacies and 56 urgent care clinics, rural hospitals, and health centers now have the equipment to support online consultations on-site, so people can see a doctor remotely while they're already at a trusted local facility.

Whakarongorau Telehealth—the phone-based service—has seen a 7.4 percent increase in daily call volume, with total demand climbing to nearly 10,000 calls per day. In response, the service has added staff and adjusted rostering to handle weekend demand. To manage the volume more efficiently, trained non-clinical staff now handle calls from people seeking information and service navigation, freeing up clinical staff for more complex cases. Over the past three days alone, this change has allowed an additional 200 calls to be answered. For parents calling about young children, the system now routes them to Plunket Line, which has also brought on extra nursing staff—another 200 calls handled through that channel in recent days.

The message from Health NZ is clear: the system has capacity, but it works best when people use it thoughtfully. Emergency departments remain open around the clock for genuine emergencies, and anyone experiencing a true crisis should go directly to an ED or call 111 without hesitation. For everyone else—the sore throats, the coughs, the fevers that need advice and treatment but not emergency intervention—the alternatives are there, accessible, and ready. It's also not too late to get a flu vaccination, which remains free for eligible groups. The winter peak will last weeks longer, but the system is built to handle it.