We don’t need to create a different service. We need to invest in the current service and recognise the opportunity that lies within general practice for communities to thrive and be healthy.
We know healthcare starts and often ends in the community. We have 23 million patient contacts each year, far more than any other medical specialty.
Our clinics are innovative, offering rapidly evolving services and options for access through a broad range of expert professions.
Investing in primary care is the most cost-effective way to address the challenges in the sector. Primary care teams across many other OECD countries receive, on average, about 14% of their overall health budgets (based on 2016 data).
In New Zealand, however, primary care receives on average less than 6% of the health budget. If we can provide 23 million patient contacts per year on less than 6% funding from the health budget imagine what we could do if we had fair and fit-for-purpose funding.
Imagine if we were in line with other OECD countries and primary care was funded for the work we do and the increasing patient need we’re seeing.
Evidence shows if you have the same GP for more than 15 years your mortality is reduced by 25%, hospital admissions are reduced by 28% and out of hours visits are reduced by 30%.
For every $1 spent in primary care, $14 is saved further down the line in secondary or hospital-based care. Our continuity of care enables us to pick up issues faster and ensure patients get the care they need. So how can we achieve this?
Improving the appeal of general practice careers
We can do this by:
Recognise GPs who train the future generations
We want GPs to be recognised for their commitment to training so they can help grow all parts of the general practice workforce.
Rectify the pay gap between primary and secondary care nurses
We want to grow and develop nurses in primary care to provide more services and undertake ongoing professional development.
Address challenges in urgent care
We want urgent care services to remain viable and available, which will in turn alleviate the pressure on our Emergency Departments.
Urgent care services are delivered in a variety of ways and need to be considered for each community. We have seen incremental change, which is a step in the right direction.
What we need now are targeted decisions and swift actions that set the workforce up to be sustainable and future-focused.
Investing in general practice will have positive impacts on the communities we serve, the health and wellbeing we support and the people we care for.
Doing so saves the broader health system money and is a positive investment for the taxpayer.