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What happens when health's first line of defence starts to falter? As many as half the country's GP clinics aren't enrolling new patients, amid a cocktail of winter illnesses, Covid infections and short-staffing.
Many others are asking people to wait weeks for appointments. And family doctors say the prognosis is gloomy, warning it could get worse before it gets better.
Katie Todd and Marika Khabazi have the story, and Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Medical Director Dr Bryan Betty talks to Lisa Owen.