A huge boost for GP funding

The Herald reports:

General practitioners will get up to 13.89% more funding this year in a new agreement the Government hopes will eventually lead to faster care.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said the $175 million increase was the biggest – by more than double – since the current funding system began. …

This is welcome. Everyone knows the GP system is under huge pressure.

• $59m increase for the number of patients enrolled with individual general practices
• $60m to encourage practices to provide more data for what the Government called performance-based funding
• $30m performance-based funding for the vaccination target
• $26m to help prevent fee increases for under-14s and keep fees capped for people on low incomes and community service cards.

The biggest payoff is getting infants vaccinated on time.