Health Minister Simeon Brown said Health New Zealand would invest an extra $25 million to boost hospital capacity and staffing across the country ahead of the colder months.
The funding would provide up to 378 additional full-time staff across nursing, medical, allied health and support roles and 71 extra winter hospital beds.
The beds would be added at four hospitals - 25 at Waikato, 20 in Christchurch, 14 at Middlemore in Auckland and 12 in Wellington.
The government said $16.8 million, around two-thirds of the funding, would going to the most pressured areas including Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, MidCentral, Auckland's Te Toka Tumai, Counties Manukau, Waikato and Christchurch.
It's also funding up to 567 short-stay beds in aged residential care to help free up hospital space, and is expanding the "Hospital in the Home" services to allow patients to leave hospital sooner.
Brown said emergency department visits continued to rise as the population grows and ages, putting increasing pressure on hospitals during winter.
"Despite these challenges, Health New Zealand has seen emergency department performance improve since the reintroduction of the government's health targets, with more patients now being seen sooner, reversing several years of declining performance," he said.
"While hospitals undertake seasonal planning each year as part of normal operations, winter demand still places significant pressure on services and frontline staff. That's why strengthening capacity early, ahead of the winter months, is critical to ensuring patients receive timely care."
Brown said he had made it clear to the Health New Zealand Board that he expected a plan to prepare hospitals for winter to be in place early.
"This gives New Zealanders confidence that the system is getting ready to support them heading into winter," he said.
"Hospitals will still face high levels of demand this winter. But by planning early, expanding capacity, and supporting our frontline teams, we are giving them the tools, resources, and flexibility they need to better manage pressure, reduce delays, and deliver care for New Zealanders."
'Bandaid'
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the announcement was "patchy at best".
"I wouldn't call it an investment or a plan, I'd call it a bandaid."
While it was a step in the right direction, 378 extra full time staff was very little compared to a total of about 80,000 employees in Health NZ. Data and digital services alone needed 200 more staff, she said. Dalton said it took between six and 12 months to get a doctor in place.
Extra beds for winter demand typically involved emptying out other services, and a number of hospitals were already at capacity, so it was a "little bit of a deck chairs on the Titanic situation", she said.
She said funding for 567 short-stay beds in aged residential care to free up hospital space was focused on Middlemore, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch, and smaller hospitals were missing out.
