23/04/2025
Media Statement
Government’s public consultation to address healthcare crisis “badly flawed” | 17 April 2025
The General Practice Owners Association (GenPro) has criticised a Ministry of Health public consultation process on workforce regulation as poorly designed and biased towards outcomes likely to compromise patient safety and lead to patients not being able to see a GP when they need to.
The Ministry describes its consultation paper Putting Patients First: Modernising health workforce regulation as “an opportunity to put patients at the centre, modernise and streamline the system, and improve efficiency”.
But GenPro Chair Dr Angus Chambers says the paper’s proposals do anything but put patients first.
“They seek to legitimise government plans to address the workforce crisis by focusing on lowering standards of care and clinical safety guidelines, rather than tackling the core issue of a lack of funding,” Dr Chambers said.
A narrow 21-day window for submissions (from March 28 to April 30) also contributes to what Dr Chambers describes as a “cursory attempt to fix a workforce crisis with band aid solutions”.
“The Ministry is seeking public feedback through an online survey, but the leading nature of its questions suggests it’s already made up its mind on outcomes,” says Dr Chambers.
“Namely, cheap fixes focused on slashing regulation and standards, with unintended consequences of a healthcare regime that is less safe and more costly, with fewer professional organisations overseeing standards of care, and with lesser-qualified health professionals plugging workforce gaps.”
An example of a leading question from the survey cited by Dr Chambers is: ‘How important is it to you that health professions are regulated by separate regulators, given the potential for inefficiency, higher costs, and duplication of tasks?’
“The survey is the medical equivalent of a political ‘push poll’ in which an organisation attempts to manipulate or alter voters’ views under the guise of conducting an opinion poll. There is no room for these types of negative tactics in primary healthcare,” Dr Chambers says.
“There are solid reasons why separate regulatory authorities regulate health professionals as different as dentists, chiropractors, psychologists, nurses, optometrists, and GPs, but on this topic – as elsewhere – the consultation paper is clearly angled towards eliciting a quick-fix response from the public.”
The Ministry of Health has failed the New Zealand population with respect to workforce planning. It is unclear why we should trust it now when it’s performed so poorly to allow this situation to arise.
“Cursory remedies such as these only exacerbate our healthcare crisis and lead to long-term harm. From a primary healthcare perspective, we know that government needs to completely overhaul an arcane funding and pricing model which is driving GPs to the wall.”
Despite more complex patient health needs and higher operating costs, general practices have received no increase in funding in real terms for several years and are restricted in adjusting their prices.
“General practices are struggling to stay financially viable and recruit health professionals, so are having to close their books to new patients, reduce their services, or close completely. The results are very apparent: delays in accessing general practices and crowded emergency departments,” says Dr Chambers.
GenPro members are owners and providers of general practices and urgent care centres throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. For more information visit www.genpro.org.nz
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For more information:
Dr Angus Chambers, Chair
Phone 027 658 5143
GenPro supports 475+ general practices and urgent care centres, ensuring fair funding, equitable pay, and high-quality primary healthcare for all New Zealanders.
