Samantha Murton: Royal New Zealand College of GPs President on the consistent lack of funding for primary healthcare providers

Primary healthcare appears to be bearing the brunt of a vicious funding cycle.  

New Royal New Zealand College of GPs research shows the sector's facing financial neglect, receiving just 5.4% of each health budget since 2009.  

President Dr Samantha Murton told Andrew Dickens it's costing more in the long run, as people get sicker.  

She says people are going to hospital at greater expense, meaning money can't be invested into primary care where the best work is done to prevent hospitalisations in the first place.  

Murton says they need 10% of the funding pool at least. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New research from the Royal New Zealand College of GPS
has come to the conclusion that primary healthcare is being
financially neglected. Only five point four percent of this country's
health budget goes to primary care and that stayed exactly
the same since two thousand and nine. So I'm joined
now by the President of the Royal College, Samantha Merton,
doctor Setmantha Merton. Commodity is sam good morning?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Here are you good?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's the same percentage, but of a bigger pie. So
can you really say that primary care is being neglected?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Although it might be of a bigger pie. The problem
that we have is that the complexity in volume of
work that has gone on in primary care has expanded
enormously over that time. So proportionally it may look like
it's stage detic, but also functionally it's stage static as well,
because there's way more work that we're doing.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Okay, so you say it's underfunded. What are the consequences
we're seeing from that underfunding?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, well, I think it's people know we are struggling
to have GPS coming into the service. We're struggling to
keep our books open because you don't have enough staff.
We're struggling to retain our nursing team because there's better
options overseas or in the hospitals, and so we'd like
to have an expanded service and do as much here
in the community as we can, but it's hard when

(01:21):
you're trying to I suppose reconfigure some that any stretch
at as star as you can, but it doesn't go
any further than what we can currently do.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Are there other areas of the health sector that are
benefiting from the underfunding of primary healthcare so they're getting
a bigger size.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, the thing is it's about where do you invest
so that you make the whole system run more smoothly,
And so as soon as you reduce what goes into
primary care, then it costs more having people dealt with
in hospitals. And if you're not seen earlier in own
their own gp and looked after and had everything that

(01:59):
they need to do, then they may get sicker, faster
and end up in a hospital setting, which costs a
whole of all. So it becomes this vicious cycle of
people going to hospital is costing lots of money. Then
you can afford to invest in primary care where the
most efficient invest care can be done to prevent people
getting into hospitals.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So what do you want? Do you want more money
or do you want a more equitable redistribution of what
there is?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think when you look globally at other countries, the
distribution that goes into primary care is around the ten
to fourteen percent, not five. So every country has increases
budget over time, but we would like to see that
the genuine investment in primary care is like not rather
than five percent of the total, it's actually probably around

(02:45):
ten percent of the total at least.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Doctor Samantha Murton, I thank you so much for your
time today. For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,
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