Ms Street has spent time in Dunedin this week meeting people in the health care sector and participating in a euthanasia forum at the University of Otago.
Asked what Labour did in office to address low pay in the aged care sector, Ms Street said it tried and largely failed to get pay increases to workers though targeted funding increases.
However, it could again look at pegging public funding to pay rates.
Ms Street said the Government was doing too little planning for the ageing population, which was one of many areas of health care strategic planning and promotion suffering neglect.
Health Minister Tony Ryall was an "excellent manager" who managed to keep health off the "front page" in terms of media exposure.
However, people were starting to recognise the minister's "spin", which saw Mr Ryall "sitting in Wellington" saying health funding was higher than ever while community services bore the brunt of cuts.
While the health budget was bigger every year, it was not keeping up with inflation and increased demands, she said.
There was no question the Budget next month would signal cuts to health, and it would not give DHBs enough money to meet demands on them, she said.
She believed new money to DHBs was likely to be $262.5 million, which had to cover doctors' and nurses' pay increases, extra KiwiSaver costs, tighter health care targets and other demands.
It was likely the contracted-out sector would suffer through reduced demand from DHBs, which would affect mental health and youth services, she said.
Ms Street met new Southern DHB chief executive Carole Heatly, and Chair in Neurosurgery project manager Irene Mosley, during her visit.
