WELLINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Health Minister David Clark said Thursday that strengthening the health workforce is an ongoing priority.

"New Zealand is lucky to have highly skilled and dedicated doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health workers. They are the heart of our health service and routinely go the extra mile to look after their patients," Clark said.

"However, it has been clear for some time that we're facing workforce constraints and in recent years we have not invested sufficiently in planning for a growing and ageing population," Clark said.

Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) is the team within the Ministry of Health responsible for national coordination and leadership on workforce issues.

In recent months, as part of a Ministry of Health restructure, the director-general of health has created a stand-alone health workforce directorate which will have greater capability and capacity on health workforce issues, the minister noted.

This provides an opportunity to refresh the approach to workforce strategy and planning by clarifying the respective roles and functions of HWNZ, District Health Boards and the ministry, he added.