Better Sooner More Convenient Primary Care - New Zealand Doctor

Appendix Two: Core general practice redesign
1 Aspirational statement
West Coasters will be able to access appropriate primary health care in a timely manner.
2 Project overview
This project addresses the important issue of access to core general practice care by
redesigning general practitioner, nurse and health assistant roles and medical centre delivery
systems, including appointment systems. The IHI Breakthrough Series PDSA quality
improvement model will be used as the change management tool.
This project also includes improving access to appropriate primary health care for Māori
through developing roles for Māori nurses and kaiawhina.
An expanded first contact role for community pharmacists is proposed.
This project does not include integration of general practice with other community based
nursing, allied health or NGOs, after hours care or recruitment and retention since these
aspects are covered in other plans.
3 Problem definition
In every consultation meeting with health providers from primary or secondary care, and with
community representatives, the following two problems were seen as the most important to
solve as part of this EoI process:
long waiting times to be seen
difficult for new arrivals to the West Coast to enrol in a health centre.
Other related issues commonly raised were:
lack of extended hours clinics to improve access for those with full time jobs
lack of continuity of care, ie. seeing a different GP or nurse each time
limited co-ordination/communication between GPs and nurses, sometimes resulting in
inconsistency of care
lack of community understanding of nursing roles and abilities.
Business case appendices V12 AC 25Feb2010 Page 6