A Primary Care Taskforce was established earlier this year to lead local changes aimed at addressing capacity pressures in primary care, with an initial focus on general practice. 

Project Manager Linda Wensley says we have an incredible and motivated group of primary care and community leaders who have stepped up to make positive changes to the pressures being experienced by primary care and improving the access to care for our community. 

The initial focus for the taskforce has been on ways to enable general practitioners wanting to adopt alternative ways to manage their inboxes and exploring ways to increase clinical pharmacists’ involvement in general practice. Resources are in development to help teams put these new ways of working into practice, including case studies to demonstrate their value and how other practices have introduced these changes. 

Focus groups are also being planned to look at why some general practitioners and practice nurses leave general practice or retire early. 

"We want to explore what we can do, to assist our experienced clinicians to stay in practice for longer," says Linda. 

A survey was released on 14 June to gather information from general practitioners, practice nurses and practice managers to help form the taskforce's priorities and the current uptake of initiatives to address capacity pressures. 

The findings from the survey will inform both the work underway and priorities placed on future work. 

Please direct questions to linda.wensley@ccn.health.nz