Labour leader Chris Hipkins said this week that pharmacists could take on more healthcare work, as part of Labour's plans for health heading into the election.

Hipkins told RNZ on 6 July there is "still room, I think, to do more in the pharmacist care space". He linked this to Labour's other health plans — three free GP visits and free prescriptions — to show the party wants to focus on keeping people healthy rather than just treating illness. He didn't announce exactly what new work pharmacists would do, but the comment signals Labour is thinking about it as they build their health platform for the campaign.

The free prescription plan, announced in June, would scrap the $5 charge people pay each time they pick up a prescription. Right now pharmacists already do things like giving vaccinations and handling minor health problems. Expanding what they're allowed to do would build on changes already happening in how primary care works. Hipkins didn't say what extra services he meant.

Hospitals and health workers

On hospitals, Hipkins was sharp in criticising the government. He said hospitals are in poor condition and the government has cut spending on upkeep. He said the freeze on hiring new health workers has "done a lot of damage." The government's 2026 Budget did include money for hospital upgrades, more beds, and new computer systems, but Hipkins said that doesn't undo the problems from years of frozen hiring and neglected maintenance.

A Labour government would fix hospital buildings and hire more health workers, he said. But he wouldn't say how many workers Labour would actually hire — something journalists and opposition parties will ask about again. You can't rebuild a health system without saying how many people you need. That Labour hasn't given numbers is a real gap, not just a PR problem.

At Labour's Party Congress on 28 June, Hipkins explained the broader economic thinking behind these commitments. Labour wants to pay employers $500 a month for up to two years to hire and train new apprentices, in more trades than now. That policy is aimed at construction and trades generally, but the health worker pipeline also needs similar money to work. Labour hasn't confirmed whether that apprentice scheme would cover healthcare jobs.

What it means

Put together — pharmacist expansion, free prescriptions, and talk of more health workers — Labour's health plan starts to take shape: cut what patients pay upfront, get more workers in the system, and fix old hospital buildings. The thinking holds together. What's harder to see is how it all adds up in terms of cost — how much the government will actually spend on higher pharmacy payments, where the money for extra workers comes from, and what all this means for Labour's wider spending plans.

For people working in health, what Hipkins said about pharmacists matters. The health sector has been asking for pharmacists to be allowed to do more for years, and an opposition leader even hinting at it makes those conversations more serious. The people who run the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand will know that letting pharmacists do more would need law changes and new payment deals — Hipkins' comment is a political signal, not a concrete plan yet.