Former New Zealander of the Year Dr Lance O'Sullivan has threatened to walk away from medicine if the health system doesn't radically change.

Photo: ( RNZ / Alex Perrottet )

In an expletive laden online post that started with the words "the gloves are off", Doctor O'Sullivan said he was enraged at seeing "another brown kid" die in New Zealand, and wrote of his shame at being part of a broken health system and his anger at some of the incompetent officials that worked in it.

Dr O'Sullivan said the three recent meningitis deaths in Northland set him off, but his frustration had been brewing for a long time.

Watch the full Checkpoint interview with Dr Lance O'Sullivan here:

He told Checkpoint those with the greatest need got the poorest performing doctors.

"I had a 4-year-old Samoan child who, I became involved with his care, brought into see a doctor here in Rotorua and the doctor sent them home.

"The child was clearly sick (with pneumonia) because two days later (he) stopped breathing, had to be helicoptered to Starship. I can stomach bad luck, but I can't stomach poor performance to those with greatest need.

"The health system is stuffed and I'm not critical of this government only, this is successive governments' (fault). Change things, change it up because as part of it, it's heartbreaking but to be a user of the health service it must be demoralising," he said.

Dr O'Sullivan said nurses were very good at diagnosing problems, but doctors were getting in the way of proper treatment.

"There are doctors that are incompetent. I'm always getting a hard time because I'm critical of the profession, but I'd love to see a Minister of Health in 10 years time saying 'you know how we needed 100 percent more doctors? Well, I'm proud to say we need 50 percent less because we're using a larger workforce that doesn't rely on doctors'.

"I'm highly critical of our health system and all those that work in it and even those that work in it agree with me, this is a problem. In terms of the health system, we spend $16 billion a year on health, there is more than enough money in the budget to do the job, you've just got to get people out of the way that are content to sit in mediocrity and deliver poor outcomes," he said.

Dr O'Sullivan added that vaccinations for the MenW strain should be compulsory in areas such as Northland.

"I will leave medicine if this doesn't change," he said.

His self imposed deadline is just two years.

Dr O'Sullivan said he had tried to contact Health Minister David Clark, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy Prime Minister Kelvin Davis to express his concerns directly but had not yet received an invitation.