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Has any locum support or rural sustainability funding for rural LMC midwives been reduced or withdrawn in the Waikato district since 1 January 2025, if so, for how many midwives, and what reason was given?

Answered Question 33119 (2026)
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Asked by

Ayesha Verrall

List MP · Labour Party

Question

  • Has any locum support or rural sustainability funding for rural LMC midwives been reduced or withdrawn in the Waikato district since 1 January 2025, if so, for how many midwives, and what reason was given?

Answered by

Hon Casey Costello

List MP · NZ First Party · Associate Minister of Health

Answer

I am advised that a temporary locum support arrangement, which provided two midwives -- each working 48 hours per month -- to assist Lead Maternity Carers in the Coromandel area, ended on 30 June 2026. I am further advised the arrangement ceased as it had reached the end of its agreed term.