GenPro is concerned that the move by the Ministry of
Health to fund childhood immunisations by Pharmacy is a
missed opportunity to strengthen the existing service
already provided by General Practice.
Dr Angus
Chambers, Chair of GenPro says “General Practice offers a
comprehensive service that includes effective delivery of
childhood immunisations, including precall and recall to
support patients to receive their immunisations on schedule.
It also offers the opportunity to check in on the parents to
see how they are doing. This is one benefit of continuity of
care and knowing your patients. Coming to your General
Practice for immunisations also provides the practice team
with the opportunity to check for any developmental or
health issues that the child may be
experiencing”.
GenPro understands that lack of
investment in immunisation has led to the problematic levels
of childhood immunisation and believes that additional
funding for immunisation and training of more staff should
be offered to General Practice before funding a new service
that is limited to vaccine delivery.
Additional
funding, especially into the nursing workforce, seems a
logical option given the issue of pay disparity for primary
care nurses and the associated loss of workforce
capacity.
“I cannot understand why additional
funding wouldn’t be used supporting and expanding the
current General Practice based service. Te Whatu Ora pays
the same amount to deliver 8 immunisations to a vulnerable
6-week-old child as it does to deliver a single covid
vaccine to an adult. This demonstrates that Te Whatu Ora
scarcely values this vital health event. Providing
additional capacity in General Practice to deliver
immunisations will help lift the rates and build on the
infrastructure and systems that are already in place. And
further investment in capacity in General Practice will
reduce the barriers to access and wait times” said Dr
Chambers.
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The issue of patients being unenrolled is a
system wide challenge, and the focus for better health
outcomes should be on supporting all New Zealanders to
enroll in General Practice.
GenPro is keen to work
with the Ministry to support the development of an improved
vaccination service and better patient engagement with
General Practice, starting with attending general practice
for early childhood immunisation services.
Dr Chambers
went on to say “There is strong international evidence of
the benefits of enrollment with General Practice and a
well-coordinated immunisations service is part of that. This
initiative risks the fragmentation of
care”.
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