Primary And Community Health Aotearoa Are Calling For An Urgent Review Of The Existing Funding Model

Primary and Community Health Aotearoa (PCHA) is a multidisciplinary member-based organisation with representation spanning the breadth of primary and community health across all sectors.

The Board and members are calling for an urgent review of the existing funding model to challenge the status quo, embracing contemporary and collaborative models that focus on improved outcomes rather than simply service delivery and to achieve better value for money.

PCHA support greater involvement of the primary and community care sector in how health is planned, and health care is improved, resourced, and delivered.

We have seen tens of thousands of people protesting on the streets of Dunedin for a new hospital. Whilst we agree this is important, we also see it as imperative to ensure patients don’t end up unnecessarily in hospitals and that is where the increased investment in primary and community health can help with this issue and save taxpayers money.

We need increased investment and engagement in primary and community health to help alleviate the increasing burden observed on the health system. Improving timely access to health care will significantly reduce hospital admissions and improve health outcomes, but also make sure we invest in cost effective and appropriate community support post discharge to ensure readmissions are reduced.

People get most of their healthcare from primary and community services. We are generally the first point of contact, we facilitate access to secondary and tertiary services, support people to return home, and ensure people remain independent and at home for as long as possible. This helps reduce the burden on our hospitals.

Primary and community healthcare providers are fundamental to improving access and improving health care outcomes for individuals, whanau, and the system.

Our members are constantly addressing issues with equity and access, and we believe that collectively we can help shape a change in this with collaboration with both government and health officials.

Staffing issues in primary and community health has reached crisis levels, many parts of the health sector have found this the most difficult time for recruiting in recent history.

There is a major issue around pay equity and pay parity across primary and community health. A commitment to a long-term process for effectively addressing pay settlements across the board needs to be developed as a sign of recognition that our vital role in the health sector really matters.

There is a major workforce problem across the health sector. Our members can help with this workforce problem including through ensuring that we get the best use of our existing workforce, as well as plans to best meet future health care demands.

For example, we see that enabling Pharmacists and Plunket nurses to become authorised vaccinators to help achieve national immunisation targets and remove the barrier of Nurse Practitioners to prescribe medications that would help our overburdened GPs.

Health sector NGOs employ 35,000 staff and 42,000 volunteers. These people are critical to improving our health system and yet the sector continues to struggle with equity and pay parity challenges.

Further, NGO’s and primary health providers are seldom invited to be involved with system design. This is counter intuitive given how the primary and community sector had been able to operate so cost effectively and sustainably.

“We ask Health New Zealand to bring our members to the table so that we can collaboratively all help with making a change to our health system that is in crisis.” says the chair of PHCA, Hon. Steve Chadwick.

© Scoop Media