GPNZ Stands Behind Findings Of Pharmaceutical Society Workforce Survey

GPNZ wholeheartedly endorses the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand’s (PSNZ) call for more funding and professional support across all parts of our health system, on the back of its latest workforce survey.

The Society’s findings, combined with GPNZ’s own research and experiences, paint a confronting picture that our whole system is on the brink of collapse.

On a daily basis we hear of the growing pressure on essential general practice services, where people access most of their care most of the time. Funding and workforce pressures mean that services are under threat across New Zealand, and the impact is being felt most in some of our most vulnerable and high needs communities.

Inability to access timely care from a general practice is inevitably leading to more pressure in other parts of the system, including EDs and pharmacies, while general practice itself is managing more and more unfunded complex care, as a result of delayed or declined hospital care.

The PSNZ survey reports an 80 per cent increase in patients consulting community pharmacists after being unable to access general practice, and a 43 per cent increase in patients seeking help from community pharmacists for more serious conditions.

Ultimately the PSNZ workforce survey findings confirm the growing demands on our health system and the risk of serious consequences to the health of our population, with Government funding decisions over successive years failing to prioritise primary care.

We need to reorient our health system towards keeping people well, not just caring for them when they get sick, which requires a major shift of focus and funding towards primary care.

As a sector primary care can do more if it is properly resourced, reducing the risk of increasing ill health and downstream costs. Even within a constrained funding envelope, there are a range of initiatives that will help to improve equity, access and best possible health outcomes for New Zealanders and support our over-stretched primary care workforce. We hope that decision-makers and funders will take the opportunity to work in partnership with primary care to act on them with urgency.

© Scoop Media