The proposed medical school, which would be based in Hamilton, has become a point of contention between the National Party and Act.
During the 2023 election campaign National campaigned for the $380million medical school to be built in time for its first intake in 2027, but Act, as part of its coalition agreement, secured an agreement that it had to go through a comprehensive business case for approval.
Emails obtained under the Official Information Act show that the tension spilled over into correspondence between ministerial staff.
In February last year, advisers for Act leader David Seymour posed a series of questions — all of them redacted — to advisers for then-health minister Shane Reti.
At the time of Dr Reti’s original signing of the memorandum of understanding with Waikato University over the medical school proposal, an adviser for Mr Seymour said: "We’re keen for the PR to more explicitly point out the commitment in the National-Act agreement — that full cost-benefit analysis must be presented before any binding agreement is made with respect to Waikato medical school.
"At the moment, the PR makes it sound like a tick-box exercise."
The proposed medical school has drawn flak from the Universities of Otago and Auckland, both of which argue that they could produce more doctors cheaper and more efficiently.
Green MP Francisco Hernandez said the disagreements showed the proposal was an unnecessary exercise.
"Nobody believes that the case for the Waikato Medical School stacks up — not even the coalition parties.
"It is time for the new minister of health to put an end to this pet project with little logic behind it and direct resource to where it would be worthwhile, like training doctors at institutions with proven records of delivery like Auckland and Otago."
