Suggestions that nurses replace doctors at GP clinics to address chronic staff shortages are uninformed, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has suggested nurses and nurse practitioners can "do more of the work of what a GP does".
NZNO’s College of Primary Health Care Nurses chair Tracey Morgan says the Prime Minister’s comments shows a complete lack of understanding about how frontline primary and community care best operate.
"Evidence continually shows a team based approach creates the best health outcomes in primary care. That means integrating health care workers based on their professional skills and experience; from practice nurse, to nurse practitioner, to allied health professional (such as physio or occupational therapists), to the GPs.
"The nursing workforce can’t be stabilised and the much needed team approach developed with a high turnover of primary health care staff.
"This churn is created because nurses in GP and community clinics are paid on average between 14% to 20.8% (between $5.14 and $7.88) less per hour than their Te Whatu Ora counterparts.
"This is despite them having the same skills and qualifications," Tracey Morgan says.
"Instead of making uniformed suggestions, the Prime Minister must pay nurses in GP and community clinics the same as their hospital counterparts.
"Only then will the Government be able to fix the chronic staff shortages in primary care which are resulting in people not being able to get to see their GPs, ending up in hospital even sicker and putting more pressure on already stretched hospitals."
