A future Labour Government would offer doctors and nurse practitioners low-interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones.<\/p>\n
New Zealand currently has a GP shortage, which is expected to worsen as GPs retire without being replaced. A recent survey found two-thirds of GPs are expected to retire in the next decade. <\/p>\n
Some in the sector have also warned of an emerging duopoly, with large primary healthcare providers buying up practices from retiring independent owners. <\/p>\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins announced the promise on Sunday at his party\u2019s conference in Auckland. this weekend. His speech and media stand-up is being livestreamed at the top of this article.<\/p>\n
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a practical, targeted way to boost locally-owned clinics across New Zealand and strengthen the ones we already have. More doctors in our communities means shorter waits for patients,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Labour will initially offer up to 50 loans a year, prioritising areas that have no GPs or practices with closed or partially closed books.<\/p>\n They will only be available for owner and community-operated general practices and be repaid over 10 years. The loans will be interest-free for the first two years.<\/p>\n Labour has put affordable healthcare at the heart of its emerging pitch to voters at next year\u2019s election. The party has promised to spend the majority of money raised from its capital gains tax to fund three free GP visits a year. <\/p>\n That policy came under fire from National and the coalition Government for being likely to put pressure on the already stretched primary care workforce.<\/p>\n Hipkins said the policy would help Labour achieve its promise of freeing up 4.5 million doctor\u2019s appointments every year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of doctor-owned practices is falling, as is the number of doctors who work in doctor-owned practices. It\u2019s expensive to start a new practice or buy into an existing one, so our low-interest loans will give doctors the kick start they need to get established.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo-thirds of practice owners and partners are intending to retire in the next 10 years, so it\u2019s vital we can support the next generation to keep the doors and books open.\u201d<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n Labour members gathered in Auckland this weekend for their party conference.<\/p>\n On Saturday, two members of the caucus, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Barbara Edmonds, addressed the conference.<\/p>\n Tangaere-Manuel laid out an ambitious platform for retaking all seven M\u0101ori electorates at the next election<\/a>. Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori won six of the seven in 2023, although two of those MPs have subsequently left the party.<\/p>\n One of those expelled MPs, T\u0101kuta Ferris, put out a press statement last week suggesting Labour voters should split their votes, creating an overhang that would make it easier to topple the coalition from office.<\/p>\n Labour does not appear particularly moved by that strategy and has continued to talk up its chances of retaking all the seats next year.<\/p>\n Edmonds\u2019 speech contained a dose of realism, warning Labour could not afford to say \u201cyes\u201d to everything its supporters may want.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n She also put some distance between herself and the last Labour Government, in which she briefly served as a minister.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve heard the lesson of last term: too much, too fast, and not enough finished,\u201d Edmonds said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople heard the promises \u2013 and often supported the intent \u2013 but didn\u2019t always see the change in their lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Edmonds promised \u201cfiscal responsibility\u201d if Labour is elected next year.<\/p>\n Act Leader David Seymour pre-emptively questioned that commitment, rushing out a press release as the conference got going questioning how Labour would fund its commitment to reverse the coalition\u2019s pay equity reforms, which saved $12.8 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cEven just reinstating Labour\u2019s pay\u2011equity regime will leave a $13b hole in the books, so you can practically hear Hipkins\u2019 new taxes rolling into the station. His capital gains tax doesn\u2019t save him, it will take years to raise a single billion and Hipkins needs 13,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a>Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A future Labour Government would offer doctors and nurse practitioners low-interest loans to set up new practices or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,3528,27507,2109,2082,3273,266,14093,42,296,6721,4960,18060,10527,105650,43,11515,13692,48211,18369,68604,30503,3170,40,38,41,39,6730],"class_list":["post-160506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-and","tag-doctors","tag-existing","tag-family","tag-for","tag-future","tag-government","tag-gps","tag-headlines","tag-into","tag-labour","tag-live","tag-loan","tag-loans","tag-lowinterest","tag-news","tag-nurse","tag-offer","tag-ones","tag-practices","tag-practitioners","tag-promises","tag-scheme","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160506","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=160506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}