Tū Ora Compass Health today acknowledges the removal of prescription payments within Budget 2023 as a positive step to reduce barriers for equitable patient access.
“We know that over 135,000 adults did not collect their prescriptions because of cost in 2021/22,” says Justine Thorpe CEO.
“Additionally, we see research from Otago University shows that low-income households that had this co-payment removed were less likely to be admitted to hospital and spent fewer days in hospital overall than similar households that continued to face the payment.”
“While we are pleased to see this initiative roll-out, general practice teams still face enormous challenges and the following issues must be addressed head-on to keep our community safe and well,” she says.
- A funding uplift must address the sustainability pressures on general practice. The starting point should be the findings of the Sapere independent capitation review, which concluded that on average, practices needed a 9% increase in capitation just to maintain services.
- Funding also needs to recognise that more work is happening in general practice with more patient complexity. There is a marked increase in demand for primary care services post COVID-19.
- We need to reduce barriers for our most vulnerable communities to be able to access primary care when and where they need it. This means substantial additional funding to promote affordable and equitable access to general practice is essential in order to achieve Pae Ora objectives.
- Ongoing and dedicated investment is required to train, recruit and retain the general practice workforce including development of wider care teams such as Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Pharmacists, Kaiāwhina and Health Improvement Practitioners.
- Pay parity needs to be addressed so that Primary Care Nurses are paid in line with Hospital colleagues.
