GP nurses’ pay parity puzzling

With an apparent refusal to engage with general practitioners during the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the crucial start to the vaccine rollout, one could be forgiven for wondering what issue this Government has with GPs.

This week, Health Minister Andrew Little announced what should have been welcome news of additional funding to support pay parity for nurses employed in aged care, hospices and Māori and Pasifika health providers.

Nurses’ Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said the Government should be acknowledged for the particularly good news for Māori and Pasifika health service providers whose wage gap has been crushingly unjust for so long. Even so, Goulter could not ignore the “regrettable” exclusion of nurses working in general practice.

Little has justified the differential treatment of general practice nurses by saying there was no evidence of pay disparity between general practice nurses and their hospital-based counterparts. “Decisions about what is paid to whom have to be based on hard evidence, and the data provided to me by the Nurses Organisation and the GP organisation GenPro for that sector did not show any real evidence of pay difference at this point.”

However, Goulter said: “We don’t agree with that at all, and both our members and employers say they are losing staff at a rate of knots to jobs with Te Whatu Ora where the pay is much better.”

Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty has long stated a lack of support and investment in general practice is having a profound effect on the health of New Zealanders. He says people are struggling to find a GP because of closed books or not being able to access services without going on a waitlist because of a GP shortage.

GenPro chairman Dr Tim Malloy said the pay disparity amounted to continuing disrespect for general practice nurses and added to the workforce crisis undermining family doctor services, affecting patients and demand on the health system. Molloy points to a Government general practice funding review dated July 2022 which stated general practice services are not funded adequately to deliver care for patients, constituting a serious deficiency in a core part of the health system. It observed the situation was consistent with constraints in general practice services, with difficulty in recruiting staff, and with barriers to access.

It may be resisting pay parity claims from general practices plays into the hands of Te Whatu Ora to entice nurses. But one has to wonder, what is this Government’s issue with general practices?

D. Davis has no grounds for maligning the Winterless North (“Fake weather news”, Advocate letters, November 28). He/she lives in Whangārei, possibly the rainiest place on Earth and a long way south of the Winterless North, which, like the Far North, starts at the top of the Mangamuka Gorge.

His/her grievance is with the media, or in this case perhaps the real estate industry. To some media the Far North starts in Orewa.

We who live here know better. Peter Jackson

Kaitaia