{"id":638329,"date":"2026-10-22T20:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/638329\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T20:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:06:19","slug":"more-funding-needed-for-gps-in-areas-of-high-deprivation-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/638329\/","title":{"rendered":"More funding needed for GPs in areas of high deprivation, researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"

More funding is needed for general practices that serve patients with high needs, researchers say.<\/p>\n

A study of more than 4700 patients at a Porirua practice found a quarter had been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes.<\/p>\n

Researchers examined the healthcare provided at the Porirua Union and Community Health Service in Cannons Creek, an area of high socioeconomic deprivation, over a 12-month period between April 2022 and March 2023.<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Dr Christine Barthow from the University of Otago, Wellington, said one of the most striking findings was that people with prediabetes, like those with diabetes, often had a number of other long-term health conditions that needed to be managed.<\/p>\n

“Prediabetes is often viewed as simply a risk state, but we found that many people already had complex health needs before diabetes was diagnosed,” she said.<\/p>\n

Compared with people with normal blood sugar levels, those with prediabetes and diabetes used healthcare services more frequently<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People with diabetes had nearly twice as many consultations, three times as many prescriptions, and substantially higher rates of emergency department visits and potentially preventable hospital admissions.<\/p>\n

The research was co-led by Porirua Union and Community Health Service GP Dr Bryan Betty.<\/p>\n

Betty said government funding for primary healthcare needed to be better targeted to reflect the complexity and intensity of care required in communities with high-needs patients.<\/p>\n

“Most of the healthcare for people with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and multiple long-term conditions is provided through general practice, but these services are under increasing strain,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The pressure is particularly acute in practices which serve mainly patients with greater clinical complexity or who experience socioeconomic deprivation.”<\/p>\n

Betty said early diagnosis, consistent monitoring<\/a> and timely intervention was important for patients with diabetes and those at risk of developing the disease.<\/p>\n

Almost 350,000 New Zealanders have diabetes and this number is expected to rise to half a million by 2044.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Christine Barthow from the University of Otago, Wellington.<\/p>\n

Supplied \/ University of Otago<\/p>\n

Barthow said there were significant inequities in terms of the impact of diabetes on New Zealanders.<\/p>\n

“People living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas are 2.7 times more likely to develop diabetes than those in the least deprived areas, and people of Pacific, Indian\/South Asian, or M\u0101ori descent have a significantly higher incidence than those of European descent,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Ensuring primary healthcare is properly funded to manage high-needs patients really is vital if we are to improve population health outcomes and reduce inequities.”<\/p>\n

The research was funded by the Health Research Council and the results were published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More funding is needed for general practices that serve patients with high needs, researchers say. A study of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-638329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638329","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=638329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}