The Health Minister has announced an extra 100 placements for overseas-trained doctors to work in primary care, and incentives for recruitment of 400 graduate nurses a year.
Health New Zealand will also be putting an extra $285 million towards general practice, but the extra funding will be linked to performance.
A new 24-7 digital service will also be set up to allow all New Zealanders to access online medical appointments.
Health Minister Simeon Brown revealed the decisions alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this afternoon.
Watch the media conference here:
Brown said one of his key focuses as health minister was to ensure New Zealanders had better access to doctors and nurses at their local GP.
"It makes no sense that overseas-trained doctors living in New Zealand are willing to work in primary care, but can't, because there aren't enough training opportunities.
"We are fixing this by building on a successful pilot in the Waikato and will support their transition into general practices that need them most.
Brown said the new digital service will give GPs and nurses the ability to also issue prescriptions or make referrals for lab tests.
"This is a practical solution which expands access to primary care for Kiwis and will provide an additional service to ensure New Zealanders have more access to timely and quality care."
Luxon said today's announcement was the first of several designed to improve health outcomes.
The week in politics
In the past week, much of the world's attention has been on the relationship between Ukraine, Europe and the US, with a number of countries looking at boosting defence spending and questioning whether the US could still be relied on for security in Europe.
Luxon at the weekend reaffirmed New Zealand's support for Ukraine.
Last week he was in Vietnam for political and business discussions, including the signing of a new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement.
At home, his coalition partners Winston Peters and David Seymour were making headlines. Seymour continued to defend the under-fire school lunch scheme, while the foreign minister had South Korea, the Cook Islands and China on his agenda.
The four-year Parliamentary term idea has also made a comeback since Luxon's last post-Cab press conference, and Housing Minister Chris Bishop launched a new scheme to get more houses built.
Also likely up for discussion will be calls for changes to NCEA from principals serving some of the country's poorest communities.
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