GenPro Focuses BIM On Helping New Health Minister Improve Access To Primary Healthcare

General practice owners, pleased the new Health Minister identifies access to primary healthcare as a top priority, have put forward their views on how Minister Brown could reduce waiting times to see a doctor.

In a Briefing to the Incoming Minister, the General Practice Owners Association focuses on three key actions critical to reducing waiting times.

GenPro Chair Dr Angus Chambers says doctors are on the same page as the Minister as every day they see the frustration of patients not able to make appointments in a timely way or register with their local GP.

Dr Chambers said improving access was more than just about funding, though that’s an important part of the solution in the short term.

“The new Health Minister needs to recognise the importance of primary healthcare and respond to its urgent need for financial support so it can deliver the essential services Kiwis need,” Dr Chambers says.

“Being enrolled with a GP means people are less likely to attend an emergency department, and it also reduces per-patient costs on our health system.

“Investment in hands-on general practice will directly support the government's aim of reducing waiting times at emergency departments. No other investment has any evidence of supporting the achievement of this target," Dr Chambers says.

Greater support right now for primary healthcare is critical. General practice has been degraded over two decades. Funding hasn’t kept pace with increasing costs, health needs are more complex, and the ability of general practices to raise revenue is restricted by fees controls. For all these reasons, general practice is in a precarious financial position, the BIM says.

GenPro’s three key areas to reducing waiting times are:

• Better funding for primary health care services
• Fair pay for family doctor teams
• Increasing the family doctor workforce

While all are important, funding is a critical issue because it’s created or exacerbated other problems, such as staff shortages, crowded emergency departments, and reduced services as general practices restrict enrolments or exit after-hours care.

“Minister Brown has a lot to read to prepare for his new role, but GenPro’s briefing must be near the top of the pile. General practice is in a parlous state and his influence on funding is desperately needed so we can arrest the decline in primary healthcare, reduce waiting lists, and give communities the healthcare they need and deserve,” Dr Chambers says.

GenPro members are owners and providers of general practices and urgent care centres throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. For more information visit www.genpro.org.nz

© Scoop Media