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2008 Health: Primary Care
BETTER, SOONER, MORE CONVENIENT CARE
Primary care offers the best way to deliver timely healthcare closer to home.
International research shows that health systems with strong and vibrant primary-care services have much better health outcomes for patients at lower cost than those which focus on specialist or tertiary care.
A strong primary care system should provide better management of chronic disease, improved continuity of care, greater accessibility, and earlier intervention and disease prevention.
Labour has failed to deliver on the Primary Health Care Strategy (PHCS). Apart from establishing Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and introducing higher GP subsidies, there has been little if any progress in developing multi-disciplinary health teams, better co-operation with hospitals, or more minor surgery.
Even Labour’s own Health Ministers have admitted this failure.
National supports the PHCS and we will realise our vision of affordable, integrated, multi-disciplinary family health teams providing better care for patients, closer to home.
OUR PRINCIPLES
• Effective healthcare, sooner.
• Frontline services, not more bureaucrats.
• Fresh leadership.
NATIONAL’S PLAN
1. The Primary Health Care Strategy (PHCS)
• Advance the PHCS.
• Maintain subsidies for GP visits and keep the cap on GP fees.
• No change to prescription charges.
• Maintain Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and enhance the positive role they play in primary care.
2. Supporting Integrated Family Health Centres
• Work with primary care to promote Integrated Family Health Centres that bring together a wider range of health services and professionals.
• Require DHBs to support these developments, and devolve more secondary services to primary care settings.
3. Faster access to tests and treatment
• Encourage GPs with special skills to provide a wider range of minor surgery in their clinics.
• Improve the ability of GPs to refer patients directly for specialist diagnostic testing, as clinically appropriate.
• Promote more specialist assessments and postoperative care in primary care.
• Provide $13 million a year to kick-start the devolution of services to primary care.
4. Promoting Clinical Leadership
Work co-operatively with primary care professionals to improve patient care and disease prevention.
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