National will incentivise more Kiwis to study nursing or midwifery in return for bonding them to work in New Zealand for the first five years of their career, National Leader Christopher Luxon says.

“New Zealand’s health system is in crisis, with a severe shortage of nurses and midwives contributing to ballooning waitlists, delays accessing treatment, and dangerously overcrowded emergency departments.

“New Zealand does not train enough nurses or midwives to address this shortage, and the ones we do train are being aggressively recruited to move overseas.

“In the last five years under Labour, almost 19,000 nurses have left the public health system.

“Nurses and midwives are doing their best, but they have been badly failed by a government that has not prioritised investing in the frontline.

“Instead of urgently addressing the workforce crisis, Labour has restructured the bureaucracy, while hard-working and dedicated health professionals have struggled with the weight of a faltering system.

“A National government won’t stand by and allow our hard-working frontline to continue to burn-out. That’s why today I’m announcing National’s plan to deliver more nurses and midwives.

“Under National, the Government will pay nurses’ and midwives’ student loan repayments up to $4,500 a year for the first five years of their career. This means a nurse or midwife over five years would be $22,500 better off.

“This increases their take-home pay by $87 a week.

“To access the scheme, nurses and midwives will need to enter into a bonding agreement with the Government, where they commit to working in New Zealand for at least five years after they graduate.

“This will also be open to registered nurses and midwives already in the workforce who have graduated within the last five years, on a pro-rata basis. This will support the health sector to retain these early-career nurses and midwives in New Zealand.

“National will also make New Zealand more competitive in the global competition for skilled workers, by allowing qualified overseas nurses and midwives to come here on a six-month temporary visa without a job offer to look for work and to bring their immediate family members with them.

“We will also establish a relocation support scheme, offering up to 1,000 qualified overseas nurses and midwives relocation grants worth up to $10,000 each to support their move to New Zealand.

“Nurses and midwives are at the frontline of our collapsing health system and are bearing the brunt of the shortage. Having to work long shifts without enough staff is driving stress, anxiety and burn-out. Something needs to urgently change.

“Labour has overseen a crisis in the health workforce. National will deliver more nurses and midwives so our hard-working frontline feel supported, and Kiwis can access the health care they deserve.”

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