{"id":104973,"date":"2025-10-28T09:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T09:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104973\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T09:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T09:54:10","slug":"labours-free-gp-visit-policy-doctors-sceptical-but-party-confident-there-is-enough-capacity-to-meet-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104973\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s free GP visit policy: Doctors sceptical but party confident there is enough capacity to meet demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked with general practice providers to come up with a credible plan for releasing five million more visits, many of which would be able to be implemented in rural areas,\u201d Verrall said. <\/p>\n

This would be done in part by introducing an artificial intelligence tool that can transcribe a patient\u2019s notes, giving GPs time to see more patients, she said. <\/p>\n

Clinics would also be encouraged to shift from the traditional \u201cfirst come first served\u201d approach \u2013 where patients book the next available appointment via receptionists \u2013 to doctors briefly triaging a patient\u2019s issue over the phone. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The doctor] will hear a little bit of your concern and be able to say \u2018Oh, you don\u2019t need to come in \u2013 we will send a prescription to your pharmacy\u2019; or \u2018You need to go to the physio\u2019; or \u2018Actually, you need to come in right now\u2019,\u201d Verrall said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe package, and specifically the fact that we\u2019re funding capitation and making GPs less reliant on fees is what enables them to make good clinical decisions about prioritisation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s end goal<\/a> is to free up staff and space at hospitals by treating people at general practices before they get so sick they need to go to the emergency department. GPs the Herald spoke to supported a move to reduce barriers to health care but were sceptical whether there was enough capacity in the workforce. <\/p>\n

Tauranga-based GP and president of the College of GPs Dr Luke Bradford said there were not enough GPs to meet what was expected to be a big jump in demand for appointments, particularly as the scheme was being offered universally. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really pleasing to see any policy that reduces barriers for people being able to access their GP and we welcome the acknowledgement that the best means of keeping Kiwis healthy is seeing their GP regularly. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have some concerns around what this will mean for demand and how we will meet that demand.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bradford said general practices had been under-funded for years and the sector was struggling to recruit enough doctors from medical schools, particularly in hard-to-reach places. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to increase GP numbers, we need to increase medical school rotations.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dr Angus Chambers, chairman of the General Practice Owners Association, \u201ccautiously welcomed\u201d the policy to introduce a new independent pricing model for GPs, but suggested other ways for removing barriers such as increasing community service card thresholds. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a workforce shortage, and we actually need to retain people into our profession and attract people. I don\u2019t necessarily see how [this policy] will address that issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut [if] they do believe they\u2019re going to create capacity, we\u2019re certainly interested in seeing how that would be done, but I definitely think there\u2019s a big question mark about whether we\u2019ve got the capacity.\u201d <\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ve worked with general practice providers to come up with a credible plan for releasing five million more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3013,12509,1288,3088,4611,4190,3528,5903,23966,75974,2109,4975,25812,13988,69835,1345,185,6721,27699,9862,111,43,139,69,4762,7254,15483,1356,15508,75973,684,1529,61,9863,14450,6202,379],"class_list":["post-104973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-but","tag-capacity","tag-capital","tag-commercial","tag-confident","tag-demand","tag-doctors","tag-election","tag-enough","tag-excluding","tag-family","tag-free","tag-funded","tag-gains","tag-gp","tag-home","tag-is","tag-labour","tag-labours","tag-meet","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-party","tag-policy","tag-promising","tag-properties","tag-residential","tag-sceptical","tag-there","tag-three","tag-to","tag-visit","tag-visits","tag-wins","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}