A doctor who's landlord is the Health Minister says the GP funding model is "in crisis" and she's calling on Shane Reti to urgently fix it.
Paula Mathieson has been a family doctor for more than 30 years and is the owner of Whangārei's Rata Family Health, which is run out of a building owned by Health Minister Dr Shane Reti.
She said there is a myth that GPs are highly paid — her business is more than $100,000 in debt due to under funding.
"The funding model has not changed for about 21 years now... it has reached a critical stage."
She told Breakfast's Daniel Faitaua that the Government controls the way that GPs are paid. She said there are two income streams and one of them is capitation, which is the amount GPs are paid per patient to care for the patient, which usually covers two-and-a-half to three visits a year.
Capitation is divided into groups, age and gender, but the age band stops at 65 and does not take into consideration things like chronic health issues.
This means that GPs get paid the same amount for seeing a 65-year-old and a 95-year-old, who may require significantly more help medically.
"The Government controls how much capitation funding is increased to match inflation, and it hasn't matched inflation in 21 years," Matheison said.
"That's about 65% of our income."
She said the Government also controls the fees of the clinic, and how much you pay when you need to see your local doctor.
"When your GP is charging you more fees please be aware that we are constrained in what we can charge, so for me... 2017 or 2018 was the last time I could increase my fees for a standard visit and that was by 50 cents."
Mathieson said she wants Reti to know that "this is a crisis".
"Shane, it's time you start doing some CPR, charging up the defibrillator, and start fixing this problem.
"We can't wait to much longer — at least give us a timeline, and please give us some funding."
In a statement to Breakfast, Reti said he agreed the funding model for general practice isn’t fit for purpose and wants a sustainable solution for primary care providers.
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