NZMA position on community COVID care

Thanks to actions New Zealand has taken over the past two years, the country, our health system and health workers have been protected from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic seen elsewhere. Who can forget the scenes of overwhelmed hospitals and clinics in Italy, the United States and many other countries?

That has not happened in New Zealand. Our initial strategy of elimination, and now of minimisation, saved thousands of lives and gave us the time to get vaccinated and get ready, and our health system has been able to keep functioning.

Now, as the Omicron wave moves through the country, the entire health system will be treating more people with COVID-19. The Government acknowledges the important role that GPs and other community healthcare workers have to play in treating as many people as possible at home so our hospitals are kept free for those who really need them, and that for many of them, this is the first time they have had to deal with COVID.

The Government has provided nearly $1 billion to support community healthcare for COVID patients. The Government is fully funding treatment by GPs, and most assessments are expected to be done remotely by phone or online.

This includes $395 million for the provision of primary-care services, including Kaupapa Māori and Pacific Health services; $25 million for community pharmacy services, including virtual advice and management and delivery of medicines to those isolating; and $5m of translation services to support primary care.

GPs and their representative bodies have been involved in the design and roll-out of the Care In the Community model at every stage, including agreeing contracts about levels of funding.

The Ministry of Health continues to meet regularly with the Royal New Zealand College of GPs and has held a number webinars with GPs that have frequently had more than 1000 attendees.

The Ministry also regularly meets with clinical leaders from Primary Health Organisations representing most PHOs in the country and facilitated by General Practice New Zealand.

The COVID Care in the Community work stream sits within the Ministry of Health’s Health System Preparedness Programme. The chair of General Practice New Zealand sits on the Ministry’s advisory group and the President of Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is on the assurance group.

The email from the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) was sent yesterday after a meeting with the Director General of Health. The NZMA did not raise the issues in the email with the Director-General.