Health New Zealand's defending a ballooning spend on contractors and consultants

The agency spent nearly 85-million dollars more in the year to June, compared to the previous year.

That spending has drawn criticism from those in the industry - who say our health system's overly-reliant on locums.

Chief Clinical Officer Richard Sullivan says the bulk of that spend is on clinicians covering staff shortages.

He says consultants are also needed to give specialist advice - but that spend's dropped about 65-percent in the past quarter.