Emergency nurse Nico Woodward is travelling New Zealand to talk with people about the risks of underfunding health services.

Mr Woodward is the face of the YesWeCare roadshow campaign, an alliance of unions and community organisations, which is travelling to 38 towns, equipped with 200 life-size cut-outs designed to showcase the number of paramedics, allied health professionals, nurses, doctors and support staff ‘missing’ due to a lack of government funding for health.

“I went into nursing to help people, but when I can’t help someone, even though I know I can, due to issues of understaffing, it’s incredibly distressing,” he stated in his campaign travel blog.

“So I’ve put my nursing career on hold to travel round the country talking to local people about the risks faced by underfunding of our health service.

“I’m excited to meet people and hear their stories, even though they will likely not be easy to hear.

"But this is part of my role as a nurse, to advocate for my patients, and I see this as an opportunity to take that advocacy to a national level.”

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) estimates health is underfunded by more than $1.85 billion in New Zealand - the equivalent of 9,250 doctors or 22,840 nurses or 74,000 hip operations.

The roadshow campaign comes as nine in 10 health workers, including paramedics, nurses, mental health workers and support staff, revealed they feel understaffed and under-resourced.

In the campaign survey of 6,000 health workers, 90 per cent reported the health system lacked the staff and resources to deliver care to patients when needed, while 72 per cent said their workload and work pressures were not reasonable.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) chief executive Memo Musa said the $1.85 billion shortfall needs to be injected into the 2017 budget and increase every year.

“Our members have told us underfunding is now affecting patient safety, access to care, triggering care-rationing, health worker burn-out and straining the infrastructure,” she said in a statement.

“NZNO urge the government to make health funding, with a future vision, the number one 2017 general election priority.”

NZNO has also launched its Shout Out for Health campaign in a bid to mobilise and support nurses to tell their stories about fractures in the health system.

“We are encouraging nurses to shout out for health, and speak up about impacts on the care they provide in communities, hospitals and primary care due to health underfunding,” Ms Musa said.

The YesWeCare roadshow launched in Bluff on March 4 and will travel to places including Dunedin, Oamaru, Ashburton, Christchurch, Greymouth, Nelson, Wellington, Levin, Wairoa, Tokoroa, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland, Whangarei and Cape Reinga throughout March.