The South’s GP sector is in dire straits and is being forced by the government to raise fees for patients who cannot afford it, its primary health organisation (PHO) says.
WellSouth Primary Health Network, the primary health organisation for Otago and Southland, has released its annual report.
It paints a picture of a GP sector under severe stress, chief executive Andrew Swanson-Dobbs told the Otago Daily Times.
"There aren’t many organisations that celebrate a $1.67million deficit for the year, but we are celebrating that because that’s delivered increased services to patients throughout the southern region, especially with our equity focus, as we support primary care region wide."
Mr Swanson-Dobbs said the sector faced a "funding crisis" and a "workforce crisis" in the South.
"What we have is a primary and community care sector that does not have pay parity with their secondary care colleagues.
"Doctors and nurses do not see any timeline to that pay parity being achieved."
Mr Swanson-Dobbs said GPs successfully appealed for a 4% increase in capitation rates, but in order to fund WellSouth’s services, the increase needed to be "closer to 13%".
"That’s just base capitation, but what we also need to do is have some serious conversations about the work that the citizens of this country want delivered by general practice.
"What we’ve seen is our secondary care colleagues working harder and harder, and access is getting decreased in hospitals, and the expectation that general practice just picks up the slack isn’t viable given the workforce and funding constraints we have in primary care."
This had forced practices to raise GP fees even as many patients might struggle to afford them due to cost-of-living pressures, he said.
"Practices have had to increase their fees to maintain financial viability because of the lack of capitation."
In a worst-case scenario, about 30% of the general practice workforce in the southern region could be leaving in the next five years due to burnout, dissatisfaction, or retirement. This was based on a recent practitioner survey, Mr Swanson-Dobbs said.
"As the financial year closed, I was entrenched in capitation uplift negotiations, fighting on behalf of Southern. Unfortunately, patient fees have increased [and] there are ongoing staff shortages and unsustainable business models.
"We do need to have a conversation about the hospital and primary care wants to have a conversation about what services could and should be delivered in primary care and what services could and should be delivered in a hospital."
