Better health at lower cost through primary care

MEDIA RELEASE Better health at lower cost through primary care

WELLINGTON – 6 August 2009

“General practitioners are committed to working with secondary care colleagues to ensure the most effective use of health resources.” says Jonathan Fox, President of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

As District Health Boards increasingly look to manage deficits by realigning their hospital services there will be an increasing need for primary care service provision. “General practitioners will manage an increasing range of services, but will do so in co-operation with medical colleagues in other specialties wherever necessary to ensure clinically appropriate care for patients.”

“There is a clear body of evidence that shows that countries that invest in a primary-care oriented health system have longer living, healthier citizens at a lower cost to taxpayers,” says Dr Fox, citing the work of Professor Barbara Starfield of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

“The medical profession as a whole must lead the public debate to ensure the widest understanding of how, as a country, we can do better. And we, the profession, must be guided by the facts and not by political whim.” The College, which has more than 2700 Fellows (specialist General Practitioners) is disappointed by some recent politically motivated suggestions that primary care services are clinically inferior to hospital based ones.

ENDS

© Scoop Media