Budget 2026: $35 million boost announced for ambulance services

The funding will go towards:

The establishment of two ambulance hubs in Auckland, with one confirmed for South Auckland (these are large, central bases where crews begin and end shifts and vehicles are fully prepared for service)The deployment of an electronic Patient Clinical Record system (this is a digital platform that enables real-time sharing of patient information between ambulance services and health providers, improving co-ordination)Additional training support for ambulance communications centre staffAdditional clinical welfare checks for patients

There will also be a separate increase in funding from Health New Zealand and ACC for road ambulances to meet demand and cost pressures, with the total funding package to be finalised following negotiations for the next four-year contract.

That will go towards:

Additional frontline ambulance crews and 111 call handlersStrengthened recruitment and retention of ambulance volunteers, particularly in rural and high-deprivation areasAn enhanced clinical hub to provide clinical telephone advice and support more patients to resolve their care needs without an ambulance response (this is staffed with paramedics and nurses, and manages patients without the need for ambulance attendance)

Costello said the overall funding increase contributed to the National-NZ First Coalition Agreement commitment.

The investment was expected to reduce avoidable emergency department transports by around 23,000 each year by 2029-30, she said.

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. Photo / Anna Heath

“Emergency ambulance demand is expected to increase by 95,000 incidents over the next four years, to an estimated 735,000 incidents,” she said.

“Volunteers also play an essential role in ambulance services, particularly in rural and remote areas, sustaining emergency care for those communities, while the enhanced clinical hub will help more patients access the right level of care sooner through clinical telephone advice and allow crews to focus on higher-acuity emergencies.”

Since 2023, HNZ and ACC have provided an additional $77.7 million for road ambulance services, bringing total funding to $452 million for the 2025-26 financial year.

Brown said this latest investment was about “fixing the basics and building the future – strengthening ambulance crews’ ability to respond quickly and deliver safe, effective care, and ensuring services are well equipped to meet growing demand and continue supporting New Zealanders”.

Speaking to Midday Report, Costello said the funding was in addition to the contract negotiation uplift which happens annually, and the Government will continue to increase funding for ambulances.

Costello also said the ambulance hubs in Auckland would be a “game changer”.

“It’s about having a base where the ambulances can be stopped, can be cleaned, maintained, and then sent out to work.

“So it creates some efficiencies for the staff themselves. So you don’t lose your local capacity or your local stations.

“It’s just this ability to centralise some of those really administrative functions so that there is real efficiencies.”

Costello said it was about using the resources better to make the ambulance service as efficient as possible.

Costello said that “well over 90% of the funding [for ambulances] is state”, but there were some variables given St John’s and Wellington Free Ambulance were their own entities.

“This is about the contribution that government makes. And to respect these organisations, they don’t want to be government agencies. They do want this independence.”

Workers First Union and the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research have released a report on the state of the ambulance service, which found a wage gap between Australia and New Zealand, a drop in donations to St John, and pressures from the ongoing fuel crisis.

The union’s national ambulance organiser, Faye McCann, said the Government’s announcement was welcome, but $35 million would be a “Band-aid fix”.

McCann said the Government should fully fund ambulance operations.

“We’re just in this continuous cycle of needing top-ups from the Government for the ambulance service. That shouldn’t be needed. The Government should be able to fund the ambulance service appropriately, so that we have an ambulance service we can rely on.”

Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez March. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez March said the “top up” from the Government was a good start, but agreed with McCann that ambulances should be brought fully into the public healthcare system.

“We have an essential emergency healthcare system that is still reliant on donations. I don’t think New Zealanders would accept other forms of essential healthcare being reliant on donations, and we shouldn’t accept that for our ambulance services either.”

Labour’s health spokesperson, Dr Ayesha Verrall, said extra funding was better than nothing, but ambulance services would remain dependent on charity and part charges to stay afloat.

“It’s hard to see how New Zealand First can claim to have delivered on their pre-election promise to fund 95% of St John’s costs,” she said.

“The financial pressure on ambulances has pushed up the cost of a call out – it’s now at $125 during a cost-of-living crisis.”

– RNZ