It's all in a word, really. Or perhaps it's all in the spin.

The Government says it's going to cut $138 million off the health budget, but the money will be re-prioritised. It will used elsewhere. Hospitals will become more efficient, apparently.

And the Minister Jonathon Coleman points out that the government has earmarked another $400 million for the health spend. It's not cutting money from our health service -- it's re-prioritising.

That might be a little hard to digest if you're with the Waikato DHB - they have to cut over $43 million - or find 'efficiencies' - over the 2015-2016 financial year.

Many DHBs will have to cut staff - or, as they call it, 'freeze positions'. They'll adopt a no replacement policy for the time-being. Hutt Valley DHB says it will look to freeze positions in mental health. And doesn't that just trigger the alarm bells?

Already, it seems, there are staff shortages across the board, and across the country.

The Association of Salaried Medial Specialists says these planned 'efficiencies' will put patient safety at risk. The Association says it has evidence of sick staff coming to work, of a doctor being treated in the emergency department between seeing her own patients.

The Public Service Association says staff aren't taking leave, they're working double shifts to help with roster gaps, and that is placing a huge amount of pressure on staff. It's difficult, apparently, to take a holiday.

The Nurses Organisation says some union members dread going to work, and some go home in tears. It paints a grim picture, doesn't it?

Perhaps you've had an experience in our health system recently?

I know a man who sat in a hospital some 18 months ago. He spent a week sitting in a ward, a man in his 40s, with a severely broken leg. It was a mess. And I think it took 8 days for him to have surgery. Short-staffed. Not enough operating theatre space anyway. And so he fasted every day until early afternoon, and then they told him he wouldn't have surgery that day. Every day. For 8 days.

Our health needs aren't reducing, they're increasing. The only way to make cuts for many DHBs will be to staff.

We're struggling with issues of unmet need, we're struggling with the issues triggered by the diabetes and obesity epidemics -- and so I really feel for our health workers right now.

They're at the coalface. Staff cuts could be the final straw for many.