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Better Sooner More Convenient Primary Care - New Zealand Doctor

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Appendix Twelve: Workforce<br />

1. Aspirational statement<br />

The Integrated Family Health Centres (IFHCs) will be centres of rural excellence that have the<br />

capacity and capability to meet the health care needs of the people of the West Coast, and are<br />

attractive and rewarding work environments both the current and future workforce.<br />

2 Project overview<br />

Because of the current difficulties recruiting and retaining core general practice staff, with<br />

consequent major access difficulties for patients to primary care, the first year of this plan<br />

focuses on detailed workforce planning for the core general practice team workforce.<br />

During 2010/11 detailed planning will take place to extend the project to include other members<br />

of the multi disciplinary team (MDT) within the Integrated Family Health Services.<br />

The plan covers activities to enhance retention, recruitment, professional development and<br />

quality improvement, including the need to develop a centre of excellence for health provider<br />

training, in part to support recruitment and retention.<br />

3 Problem definition<br />

Current issues that need to be addressed are:<br />

The number of permanent GPs is low: currently there is one GP per 2000 people,<br />

including locums.<br />

There is currently one nurse per 1180 people, a low ratio considering the extent of<br />

remote rural areas covered by rural nurses.<br />

There are continuing difficulty getting GP and nurse locum cover and making new<br />

appointments.<br />

There is a high dependence on GP locums with subsequent lack of continuity and<br />

consistency of care.<br />

Long waiting times often exist for appointments.<br />

This adds to the workload of other primary care providers, eg. pharmacists.<br />

In many areas there is a dependence on nurses for first line care, without always<br />

providing adequate training and support.<br />

Business case appendices V12 AC 25Feb2010 Page 110

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