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Many regular patients face long waits for a routine visit. File photo.
Photo: RNZ
Patients will continue to face long waiting times unless the government seeks to change the 15 -minute consultation, some general clinicians say.
The government has recently announced changes in the health system to face waiting times – including 100 extra places for trained doctors abroad work in primary care.
But some GPS said First An essential part of the problem was the 15 -minute consultation, which was not long enough to complete an appointment and do all the administrative work involved.
Stats NZ data show that one in four kiwis did not visit the GP because it took a long time to make an appointment.
Dr. Karl Cole worked as a family doctor at Papatoetoe’s family doctors in Auckland.
On a typical day, he saw up to 30 patients and had hundreds of messages in his inbox.
After each 15 -minute commitment, Dr. Cole should fill in several forms.
“There are all these hoops to jump,” he said.
“Each form is made in different technologies, made with different ways of authenticating.
“You basically need to make a diploma and understand which process [is] necessary for which situation. “
These forms were not easy to access.
He said demand has fired in recent years.
“There has been a five -time increase in the entrance box messages six years ago. I received 30,000 messages per year and, only in another request, there are 150,000 this year.”
Dr. Cole said most general clinicians would do several hours a day to recover the delay in the administrator.
Seeing a new patient, he said 15 minutes were not enough to study his history, discuss symptoms and fill paper work.
“The 15 minutes can be terrifying, 15 minutes when it is a new patient who may be 70, who has 16 medications, which has a new type of symptom. You just can’t do that.”
Dr. Sam King also worked at Papatoetoe Health Hub.
She also said that sometimes patients needed longer commitments, especially where there were linguistic barriers and various health problems.
“For some patients, 15 [minutes] It’s not enough and you’re talking about difficult problems and stories, people with health problems, literacy, people with English as a second language, all these things mean it’s very difficult, “she said.
This – combined with the administrator’s work – meant that ordinary patients faced long waits for a routine visit.
When people managed to see their general practitioner, they have a list of laundry symptoms.
“Part of the question is that because people don’t get appointments when they want, when they come, they have a list. And it’s who we really fight.
“I think if you definitely, if you increase financing, we can stretch the 15 minutes of appointments,” King said.
In July, the government increased the financing of the capitation of general practice by 4 %.
This was despite primary care warnings that a two -digit increase was required.
From July this year, the government is adding a boost of $ 285 million, delivered in three years.
But this financing is based on performance.
In a statement, Health Minister Simeon Brown said he gave GPS flexibility when it comes to the 15 -minute consultation.
“This financing is an increase in increasing capitation financing that the general practice receives annually to account for changes in the population.
“One of the advantages of capitation is that it offers GPS flexibility on how they meet their patients’ needs – they are not linked to offering 15 minutes. They also have flexibility in the workforce they use.”
The government was also adding 100 places to doctors trained abroad work in primary care.
Dr. Brigit Holzinger trained and practiced in Europe for 10 years before moving here in 2023.
She now practiced in Tauranga and believed that New Zealand needed to focus more on preventive care.
“I think the biggest problem, at least what I can see from my perspective, is basically financing and I feel that this is a little forgotten here in New Zealand and is more hard care, but not really preventive care, where we should focus much more.”
The government has also announced a 24/7 Telehealth service – which means that patients who need urgent care can access video consultations with general practitioners and nursing professionals.
But Dr. King said this could aggravate the problems they faced.
“Many GPS want to move to telesaúde services simply because it’s easier, it’s faster.
“You deal with smaller problems, which means that all complex patients and usually their elderly end up in front of the general practitioner and are never a 15 -minute consultation.
“So you are aggravating the problem. Just pushing more doctors to the Kingdom of Health of Tally, and I think it’s a little myopic.”
A study published by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practices published in March analyzed the primary medical assistance financing data from 2009 to 2023.
He highlighted the need for greater financial priority of primary health care in New Zealand.
The report recommended routine monitoring of primary health financing as a proportion of the total health budget and establishing a minimum allocation.
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