Public health sector will be granted additional $2.2 billion in the new budget. The money will be utilized over a period of four years to bring improvement in the health sector.

Health Minister, Tony Ryall said that the share of public health sector in the budget indicates that the government accepts the importance of protecting and growing public health during the tough economic times. The funding will be utilized towards extra medical training, wider access to medicines, more elective surgery, disability support, maternity services and doctors' visits subsidies.

An additional $585 million will be spent on initiatives, in this financial year and $420m will come from savings in other areas of the budget and $165m from health savings. $505.1m of extra funding will be received from reprioritized health spending, with savings to be made in workplace training, immunization, back-office spending, and contingency, which are not required any more.

District Health Boards (DHBs) will receive about $400m this year, including $50m in service contracts from the Ministry of Health. DHBs will provide $80m over these four years to subsidies GP visits and $14m towards allowing more people to qualify for programmes such as low-cost access and free visits for under-six-year-olds.