{"id":413552,"date":"2026-05-05T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/413552\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:30:08","slug":"broken-funding-model-and-anti-gp-ideology-causing-gps-to-leave-jobs-doctor-says-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/413552\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Broken funding model\u2019 and \u2018anti-GP ideology\u2019 causing GPs to leave jobs, doctor says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was confident in his party\u2019s promise of three free doctors\u2019 visits a year<\/a>, which he said was \u201crealistic\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour leader Chris Hipkins says his party will promise three free doctors’ visits a year if in government. Photo \/ RNZ, Samuel Rillstone<\/p>\n

Cunningham said he had \u201cdeep concerns\u201d about Labour\u2019s proposed policy because of limited capacity and its apparent reliance on AI.<\/p>\n

He also described the idea that GPs were going to be replaced by other practitioners as \u201cpolitical sound bites\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a straightforward consult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the data shows that having a regular GP, people are 30% less likely to be admitted. There\u2019s a 30% reduction in all-cause mortality or death in that patient group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to happen as people lose touch with and contact and overall care with a regular general practitioner. We need to bolster the GP workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham said it wasn\u2019t about recruitment, but rather retention.<\/p>\n

He said more and more GPs were leaving because of the paperwork burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re reducing their hours or they\u2019re sliding into easier things that pay better like Telehealth, skin cancer, ADHD work, and even cannabis clinics and things like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no paperwork involved. There\u2019s no after hours and they get paid more. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham said he loved his job and his patients but had \u201chad a gutsful of the attitude and what seems to be a really deep-set anti-GP ideology, I think, in the Ministry of Health\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said in over 25 years as a GP, nothing seemed to have gone their way, including a lack of support from hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just seem to be underfunded every year. More and more work gets dumped on us unpaid every year,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get increasing lack of support from the hospitals. Increasingly, we can\u2019t get X-rays, we can\u2019t get ultrasounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham said the ministry and Health New Zealand had to realise that people liked GPs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know people who work in those organisations and there is an anti-GP ideology and sentiment in those organisations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said New Zealand was 2000 GPs short of Australia [on population ratio<\/a>] and the public deserved better than that.<\/p>\n

\"National'sNational’s deputy leader Nicola Willis. Photo \/ RNZ, Mark Papalii<\/p>\n

Fixing health services not \u2018going to be an overnight success\u2019<\/p>\n

National\u2019s deputy leader Nicola Willis told Morning Report the issues GPs were facing was why the Government was establishing the Waikato Medical School.<\/p>\n

\u201cA real focus for the medical school is on ensuring we have GPs in rural and regional New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis said a barrier for training at the moment was having to relocate to Dunedin or Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working with the sector to relieve the pressure that is on them – things like extending prescriptions, allowing community pharmacies to do more…<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this is going to be an overnight success story but there is one thing that will make it a lot worse and that is by dramatically increasing demand for GP services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis was referring to Labour\u2019s policy of giving every New Zealander three free visits to a GP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was confident in his party\u2019s promise of three free doctors\u2019 visits a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,212619,13912,11519,7061,738,14093,134107,232,12514,1432,111,43,139,69,312,61],"class_list":["post-413552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-antigp","tag-broken","tag-causing","tag-doctor","tag-funding","tag-gps","tag-ideology","tag-jobs","tag-leave","tag-model","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-says","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413552","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=413552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}