Monday, 10 December 2001
Dr Helen Rodenburg President
Funding package offers no certainty for primary care
While welcoming news of increased funding for health, announced today by Health Minister Annette King, the Royal NZ
College of General Practitioners is concerned that primary care is “still in the dark” about the level of support it can
expect from government.
“Three billion dollars of additional funding into health is, of course, to be applauded,” said College President Dr
Helen Rodenburg, “but today announcement is silent on how much of that funding health funding overall
overall package care funding on the implementation of the Primary Health Care Strategy
“That will wondering just how much money DHBs will be expected to spend on primary care. Implementation of the Primary
Care Strategy significant gains in population health significant amount of the allocation.
“The College supports the concept of long term paths to allow for adequate planning, but there also needs to be
sufficient flexibility in any funding to allow for proper implementation, given that what implement the Strategy is yet
to be completely defined. The Government needs to work with providers on building a strong infrastructure for primary
care certainty for primary care in this announcement, which is of great concern when we consider the problems that we as
a nation are currently having in achieving an adequate health workforce, funding quality, and achieving population
health targets.”
]Contact: Dr Helen Rodenburg (04) 383-6972 Claire Austin, CEO (04) 496-5990 or: Rex
Widerstrom (04) 496-5962