Almost two hundred nurses, midwives and specialist doctors have been approved for the straight-to-residence pathway since the professions were made eligible in mid-December, but the majority of them were already here.

The changes to immigration settings late last year were aimed at attracting highly skilled workers to help plug labour shortages.

But Immigration New Zealand figures show as of March 4, 174 registered nurses have been approved for the fast-tracked pathway, 161 were already onshore when they applied for the visa, while 13 were offshore and of those, one has arrived.

For specialist doctors not already on the Green List, 20 have been approved so far, 12 of which were here when they made the application, and eight who weren't. One of those has arrived on our shores.

When it comes to midwives, just three have been approved, one onshore and two from offshore applications, neither have landed here yet.

College of Midwives Chief Executive Alison Eddy says it's a disappointingly small number of midwives, and it's not going to make much of a dent in the workforce issues.

"Some of our hospitals are reporting greater than 50 percent vacancy rate for midwifery positions... so three midwives are really barely going to make any difference in that scenario."

She says we're competing with Australia when it comes to overseas recruits, and they have much better working conditions and pay.

"I think that's possibly part of why we're not seeing midwives turning up on our doorstep, if they're looking to come internationally and choosing between Australia and New Zealand - which many overseas recruits do, then it's a simple calculation to make."

Eddy says there's intention to have a more strategic long-term plan, to do things like support and ensure students in programmes to finish, to recruit midwives and put retention incentives in the system.

"But none of those things have happened yet for midwifery, they seem to have happened for other professions, but not for ours yet.

"It's really perplexing given the level of shortage that we know, it just seems the progress of change is too slow."

National's Health spokesperson Shane Reti says the fact only one new nurse and doctor has arrived is appalling.

"What it shows is... the decision to give doctors and nurses the pathways to residency looks like it's turning out to be too late.

"We knew Canada was recruiting, we knew that Australia was recruiting, and now we're behind the eight-ball."

Reti says he's particularly disappointed no midwives have arrived, and the Government's set seeds that are going to be a problem going into winter.

He says the Government was warned, they didn't listen, and now all us, including those on stretchers in the atrium and cafe at Auckland ED, are paying the price.

Auckland Hospitals's Emergency Department was struck by "significant capacity issues" earlier this week.

Ambulance workers stepped in to care for patients on Sunday and Monday because ED beds were not available, while visitors say several dozen patients had been placed in a cafe on the same floor while they waited for treatment.

Reti says there's several things that need to be done to increase workforce numbers.

"We need to be doing a better job with immigration, we need to figure out those doctors who are driving Uber Eats, and the nurses who have qualified overseas and can't qualify in New Zealand."

He says in the longer term we need to build our own culturally competent domestic pipeline.

Nurses Organisation President Anne Daniels says the figures are disappointing, but the organisation has a position that we need to grow our own nurses.

"The reliance on overseas doctors and nurses is not sustainable, and it's certainly not filling the gaps."

Of the majority of approvals coming from onshore, she says that looks to be "taking care of business that should have been taken care of a long time ago.'

Daniels says we're just not in the market for more nurses and doctors from overseas because we're not competitive.

She says being competitive means equitable pay rates, excellent conditions and support to get into the country, through the registration and stay in the job here.

"I would see that putting all that money and effort into growing our own would be much more beneficial, and we would be more likely to keep our nurses here."

Daniels says they're on record saying nurses need to earn as they learn.

She says if it's good enough for plumbers, electricians and people in other male dominated sectors, then why not nurses.

"That would be a very good step in the right direction."

Immigration Minister Michael Wood said in particular, those on a six-week course are considered onshore applications.

“As a Government, we absolutely acknowledge the need to attract and retain nurses during a global shortage. That’s why we’ve rebalanced our immigration settings, and established faster pathways for more nurses and midwives compared with the previous process.

Prior to the Rebalance changes, only aged care nurses had a two year, work to residence pathway.

The whole world is experiencing labour shortages right now, and there are a number of factors that influence the decision for people to migrate. Adding these roles to the straight to residency helped build on the attractiveness of New Zealand to those looking to set themselves and their families up long term.

A number of nurses come into New Zealand through visitor visas to complete their CAP course, a six week course required for registration in NZ, prior to applying for a work or resident visa. These are considered onshore applications."

(In addition to the Straight to Residence applications, 1,113 nurses and 18 midwives have been approved for visas through the Accredited Employer Work Visa pathway since borders reopened.)