Without additional funding ringfenced for primary healthcare, the New Zealand health system is set to fail.
On Sunday, Labour released a fiscal plan that allocated no money to solving the GP crisis.
General Practitioners Aotearoa spokesperson Dr Buzz Burrell says that without family doctors, the health system can only get worse.
“We’re seeing GPs retiring, dropping their hours, switching careers and generally burning out,” he says.
“Without serious investment in the future of primary healthcare, the family doctor is going the way of the dodo, and that is going to cost the government megabillions.”
The fiscal plan allocates $15.5 billion over four years to cover three free GP visits per year, free prescriptions, free cervical screening, free maternity scans, and the Graduate Nurse Job Guarantee.
“It’s nice to see Labour recognise the critical importance of primary care by offering free GP visits, but there already aren’t enough GPs to see everyone.”
Labour also allocated $200 million of capital funding to hospitals.
Burrell says he laughed in exasperation when he saw that number.
“That’s a tenth of the cost of the new Dunedin Hospital, which is only about 400 beds,” he says.
“Very soon we’re going to see those beds, and every other hospital bed in the country full of patients who should have been able to get their health sorted out at their local GP clinic.”
It’s not enough money, he says, “and it’s allocated to the wrong part of the health system”.
Burrell says no parties have announced policy that will solve the GP crisis.
“At this point it feels like the National-led Government and Labour-led Opposition are both wilfully neglecting the issue that will destroy Kiwis’ health,” he says.
“And they can expect future government budgets to be dominated by eyewatering sums to get the healthcare horse back in the stalls long after it has bolted.”
