Practices need more funding and GPsOPINION

• Published date: 23 June 2022
• Publication title: Katikati Advertiser

“Why am I waiting two to three weeks to get a GP appointment?” is a commonly asked question, not just in Katikati, but all around New Zealand

Here’s why — and it’s not happy reading.

Workforce numbers are falling.

Fifty per cent of all New Zealand GPs are planning on retiring within the next 5-10 years. Successive governments have known about this for years, but little has been done to add to the workforce. In New Zealand we have 74 GPs working for every 100,000 citizens. In Australia it is 125, and in Canada there are 242 GPs for every 100,000 people.

So, there aren’t enough of us — let’s get more.

We currently train about 170 new GPs a year. It needs to be 300 to mitigate against falling numbers — but nothing changes.

This is partly because there are not enough places at medical school, there are not enough places on the GP training programme, and that being a GP is increasingly seen as an unattractive career option for young doctors. I will come onto the why of that later.

Most doctors working in New Zealand are not trained here, but come from overseas. Over the past few years immigration has all but stopped. Finally, doctors (but not nurses! — crazy), are a recognised skills shortage, but once again the Government has put a barrier in our way, because now practices need extra costly ‘accreditation’ if they are going to try and recruit from overseas.

Let’s talk about GP funding

Firstly, did you know that 93 per cent of all New Zealand health appointments are done by primary care — and that we get only 0.9 per cent of the health care budget.

When you register at a general practice, they get a set amount of money every year to put towards your care. We charge you a ‘top up’ co-payment to cover the costs of doing business (wages, electricity, consumables, rent, etc). The Government payment to us contributes towards a theoretical set number of visits a year. If you come more often we cannot charge you more to make up for the shortfall in the Government subsidy given to us. Theoretically it is meant to balance out with those who come less than expected. But, as we all know, patients are getting older and their needs are more complex. Fifteen minute appointments are often unsatisfactory for doctors and patients alike. Patients often need to return on multiple occasions to manage problems comprehensively.

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