108 | COMMUNITY Kumeu Village Medical Centre: GenPro Kelly Deeks Primary care “starved of funding” Kumeu Village Medical Centre GP William Ferguson says in New Zealand, 1.7% of the total health budget goes into primary care, while in Australia the figure is near 10%. The health care system review originally intended to address an unsustainable funding problem in general practice was abandoned for a wider review of the broader health service, and resulted in the creation of Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand. “And we’re not sure how that changes things,” says Kumeū Village Medical Centre GP William Ferguson. “Primary care funding has still not been addressed, and Te Whatu Ora is pursuing the misinformed notion that we can provide better health care for a community by individually looking at all of these communities as if they are separate entities. As if people in Kumeū suffer different types of diseases from people in Invercargill. Everyone suffers from the same diseases.” William says the total cost of the health reforms so far are equivalent to about 50 years of everything that has been spent annually on primary care. Meanwhile, general practice continues to be starved of funding, resulting in the quality and comprehensiveness of care shriveling and atrophying. The workload has blown out, and instead of the workforce growing by the 300 new GPs that are required every year, the last year saw just 16 new GPs joining the workforce. William has been keeping secret from any new trainee interns what time he actually goes home each night. It’s usually a 12 hour working day. “After a few weeks in general practice the intern thinks ‘no thanks, I’ll become a specialist instead’.” He says under the current system of long standing inadequate capitation coupled with fixed co –payment fees, general practices are forced to keep enrolling patients to meet their financial obligations, thus dragging down the quality and access to primary care. Kumeū Village Medical Centre has had its books closed for about four years, but William says he knows of practices who have kept their books open, and their patients can’t get an appointment for four to six weeks. He says in New Zealand, 1.7% of the total health budget goes into primary care, while in Australia the figure is near 10%. 94% of all consultations in the New Zealand health system are at general practices. “I think it’s been so well established looking around the world that quality primary health care is the way to save money in the health system.” Continuity of care is one of the key factors to providing quality primary care, and this first began to unravel with the loss of all aspects of maternity care from general practice. “Maternity care used to be a huge part of general practice. Both the GP and the practice nurse got to know the mothers, then the babies, and extended family health care grew from that.” Kumeū Village Medical Centre continues to provide quality primary health care thanks to a close and committed team of four receptionists, eight nurses, five GPs, a health care assistant, and a practice manager who know their patients and work together to get things done. “The retention of these staff is perhaps the single most important element of a high quality general practice. When we are so busy, you can’t imagine how valuable a really switched on medical receptionist who knows all the patients can be. That can really save a life right there.” Another important move by Kumeū Village Medical Centre is its encouragement of nurses to develop areas of their own interest and enthusiasm, and its support of them to get right to the top of their chosen field. Kumeū Village Medical Centre’s wonderful practice manager Liane Otto does a complicated and difficult job, and William says the practice is so lucky to have someone so brilliant to captain the ship. He says were any additional funding made available, he would immediately invest in a health coach for the practice, an important position in the continuity of care model which the practice has offered in the past but couldn’t afford to maintain. “During a consultation, we can identify a whole lot of things that need to happen and the patient goes out the door thinking ‘what next?’. They need a health coach to follow up and follow through to see how things are going with the changes they are making. It’s really quite amazing how much difference this can make to patients and their health conditions.” “When we are so busy, you can’t imagine how valuable a really switched on medical receptionist who knows all the patients can be.” CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS A S SOC I ATE S LIMITE D WORK WITH AN ACCOUNTING FIRM THAT SEES YOU AS A BUSINESS PARTNER, RATHER THAT JUST ANOTHER CLIENT. Call: 09 837 0717 Email: info@mclarenguise Website: www.mclarenguise.co.nz l : 09 837 0717 Email: info@mclarenguise.co.nz Website: w.mclar i Each edition priority delivered to your door. . www.waterfordpress.co.nz/subscriptions . . . i i 03 983 5525 Stay informed; we work with business owners and decision-makers across all economic sectors, profiling their success. i ; i i i i - ll i , ili i . Your Business, Your Industry, Your News. r i , r I tr , r . businessnorth Volume 21 | Issue 3 | June 2022 www.waterfordpress.co.nz businessnorth
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