‘Short end of the stick’: Govt’s GP boost can hurt Pacific providers

A former Labour MP and GP has questioned the Government’s primary care funding plan, calling for clearer details for Pacific and Māori practitioners.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown revealed a $285 million performance-based uplift for general practice over three years, offering placements for 100 overseas-trained doctors and introducing incentives to recruit up to 400 graduate nurses.

Speaking to William Terite on Pacific Mornings, Dr Anae Neru Leavasa says the health sector lacks confidence in the Coalition after a “huge amount of cuts.”

Leavasa says although this recent announcement restores some confidence in the Coalition, a performance or target-based criteria has always impacted Māori and Pacific providers, leaving them with “the short end of the stick”.

“When we're having to deal with complex issues within our community, when targets or performance-based targets are quite hard to reach, then we're not going to get the funding,” he says.

“It should have been equity-based or needs-based, but from here, it's all about targets for this government.

“It’s going to be quite hard for our Pacific providers [and] clinicians to actually reach those targets and therefore not actually get the funding.”

He adds that the announcement appears good on paper, but primary care continues to be underfunded. The $285m over three years becomes a small percentage when split up by each clinic attempting to claim it.

“The question is how is this going to be implemented? There is no mention of any equity,” Leavasa says.

“We see that Te Whatu Ora is trying to slowly dish out the details, but we're all waiting for everything just to pour out for us so we can get more clear directions of how that money's going to be spent and where it's going to go.”

Listen to Dr Anae Neru Leavasa’s full interview below.

New nurses and doctors: Who’s supervising?

Leavasa also says that since providers are stressed by funding cuts, an influx of graduate nurses and overseas-trained doctors will add more pressure.

It has been tough times, especially for Pacific providers, who, following a “great job during COVID-19,” were targeted by Te Whatu Ora Covid-19 audits, leading to funding clawbacks.

“Now they're relying on us to host, supervise nurses [and] overseas trained doctors when the audits have already put a hole in some of our providers' pockets,” he says.

“First they claw back money and now they want us to actually supervise and implement their policy.”

Leavasa welcomes any investment in primary care, as funding is good, but the issue remains the Government’s performance-based component.

He says funding should be delivered under capitation rules, where clinics receive money based on the number of enrolled patients rather than each visit.

“But also putting in the equity lens on it as well because a lot of our providers are struggling."