Free blood testing has finally been rolled out for nearly 24,000 people living in Te Anau and Wānaka.

Paying a co-payment at the local general practice or travelling up to two hours for a free blood testing has been a bone of contention in both towns, when patients in metropolitan areas have been receiving free blood tests.

The announcement was made today (31 Oct) by Health Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey

Health Minister Brown said the rollout would mean that 4,400 people in Te Anau and 19,350 people in Wānaka could now access blood testing free of charge at their local GP.

"Together, these towns will deliver approximately 25,000 free blood tests every year,” he said.

Minister Doocey said removing the cost barriers was an important step in improving access to healthcare, providing care closer to home for rural communities, and addressing a long-standing inequity between rural and urban areas.

“This initiative will lead to earlier and more timely diagnoses for people who have previously delayed testing due to travel or cost,” Doocey says.

Ministers Brown and Doocey also acknowledge the advocacy of Southland MP Joseph Mooney and Waitaki MP Miles Anderson in improving access to rural healthcare.

“By listening to locals and removing barriers like cost and distance, we’re making healthcare more accessible and ensuring rural New Zealanders get the care they need, right in their own communities,” Brown said.

Southland MP Joseph Mooney said he was incredibly pleased that people in the Fiordland basin would now benefit from access to free blood tests, "a vital public health service that has long been needed in our region and something I have been advocating for many years,”

“This is a tangible delivery of the Government's plan to shift some services into rural settings and ensure healthcare is provided closer to communities."

"It’s fantastic to see Health New Zealand and WellSouth delivering on the government's new priorities which will make a real difference for local families."

Fiordland Medical Practice GP James MacMillian-Armstrong said the news was fantastic and would certainly help ease the anxiety on those who required regular or repeat blood tests.

"It's been a glaring inequality for a long time."

You could go and get your free blood tests in Gore and Invercargill, but we have had "woefully inadequate funding."

"It's a win for rural practice [and comes] on the back of years and years of beating the drum [both] locally and nationally," he said.

"We are pretty excited about it."

MacMillian-Armstrong said that while Te Aroha haven't guaranteed it will be forever [the initial contract was for one year with a proposal to extend it up to 3-years] they were cautiously optimistic.

"I think the ministry is finally beginning to show some willingness to put their money where their mouth is for rural inequality."

"I think it is a postive move and I think it will be very hard to go back."

MacMillian-Armstrong there was still six to ten other things, including X-rays, that rural patients had to pay for that were free in other places.

However things were now moving in the right direction, he said.

Te Anau local and Fiordland Health Trust trustee Richard Wason said Te Anau had been pushing for free blood tests for a long time and it had been a fight to get it.

"People who live in the country are discriminated against."

"We [also] have to pay for X-rays."

"We are the furthest away from a base hospital," he said.