GPA news
Dear David Seymour: Our health system is sacrosanct
On Friday, in Associate Minister of Health David Seymour’s State of the Nation speech, he floated the idea of giving New Zealanders the option of opting out of the public health system. General Practitioners Aotearoa (GPA) encourages this Government to continue to support the people of Aotearoa New Zealand so nobody is left without access…
Response to naming of GP in Stuff article ‘Too scared to move’
This letter was written to Stuff journalist Mildred Armah, and Stuff and Manawatū Standard editors, on behalf of GPA.Dear Mildred, and the Stuff and Manawatū Standard editorial teams,I am writing as Chair of General Practitioners Aotearoa, in response to the January 27 article “Too scared to move: Woman feels ‘nailed to bed’ after allegedly being denied pain medication”.I want…
Briefing to incoming Minister of Health, Hon Simeon Brown
To the Honourable Simeon Brown,Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Health. We are encouraged to hear you have made it a priority to reduce patient wait times for GP appointments.We hope that you will bring a fresh drive to pull the health system out of crisis, and that you will invest in primary healthcare,…
Opposition to Government funding of certain smoking cessation products
General Practitioners Aotearoa opposes the Government’s recent decision to fund specific smoking cessation products, namely vaping kits.As New Zealand’s only independent organisation representing general practitioners, General Practitioners Aotearoa (GPA) is committed to keeping an open mind and supporting evidence-based strategies to reduce smoking prevalence and improve public health.We are very concerned that the Government is…
The government’s plan is to kill general practice. Ignorance or intention?
This week’s Health Workforce Plan released by Te Whatu Ora demonstrates a profound negligence, says General Practitioners Aotearoa (GPA).The purpose of the Plan is to “to strengthen the clinical frontline and deliver on the Government’s priorities”.GPs are the frontline of the frontline, says GPA chair Dr Buzz Burrell, but they barely get a mention in…
Who are all these organisations representing GPs? A resource for media and doctors
We often get asked: what’s the difference between GP Aotearoa and GenPro? Where does GPNZ fit in? … and similar questions.Each of the four main organisations representing GPs in Aotearoa New Zealand fills a very different role. Here is a quick guide to understanding what they are.General Practitioners Aotearoa (GPA)We are a membership organisation for…
New feature: Register a group GPA membership for your clinic
Thanks to those clinic owners who have reached out to us asking if it is possible to purchase group memberships for GPs working at your clinic.Good news: now you can!We’ve been working on a new membership plan, so clinic owners can register multiple people, pay for their memberships, and manage those memberships.Purchase as many “seats”…
General Practitioners Aotearoa in the media this week September 2-6
This week kicked off with a very important article by the New Zealand Herald‘s Michael Morrah: Healthcare crisis: Desperate patients queue from 6am at Ōtara clinic for doctor visitsWe at General Practitioners Aotearoa responded to this by reaching out directly to Michael, and writing our own response highlighting the wider implications of this story: GPs…
VIDEO: GPs warn of primary care collapse in New Zealand
New Zealand Herald journalist Michael Morrah interviewed GPA chair Dr Buzz Burrell to talk about the bleak state of primary care in Aotearoa.
GPs should be lining up around the block, too
This media release is in response to the New Zealand Herald story on September 2, 2024, titled “Healthcare crisis: Desperate patients queue from 6am at Ōtara clinic for doctor visits“.Tuesday’s New Zealand Herald story about patients queueing at 6am outside a clinic in Ōtara highlighted the dire situation with health clinics in Aotearoa.“We shouldn’t see…