NZ’s biggest primary health organisation argues GP clinics could take on more of the load currently carried by hospitals – but only if they get the funding to match.
You spot a suspicious mark on your skin. Your GP says it needs checking. For some patients, what follows is a hospital or specialist referral, more travel, and potentially a long wait.
ProCare, New Zealand’s largest primary health organisation, believes this process could be working much better for Kiwis – and that we could lead the world for best practice.
Its new election manifesto advocates for longer-term thinking and more investment in primary care, arguing more tests and treatments could be undertaken through general practices and community services, rather than within our strained hospital system.
“That GP clinic will know you, know your family history, and know more about how they can care for you,” says ProCare chief executive Bindi Norwell.
The fence at the top of the cliff
ProCare’s five-point manifesto calls for more coordinated community care, investment in the workforce, better-connected technology, greater trust across the health system, and a long-term national strategy.
“It’s really that fence at the top of the cliff, rather than the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff,” Norwell says.
ProCare wants to expand skin-lesion care, iron infusions and diagnostic procedures such as point-of-care ultrasound.
A new $23 million government programme is already moving some skin cancer care into GP clinics, with its first stage funding participating practices to check and remove suspicious skin spots and moles.
It will also fund GP training in dermoscopy and skin excision. Later stages will extend to cataract follow-up with optometrists, symptomatic bowel cancer detection and respiratory care.
Who would do the extra work?
General practices are already stretched.
Expanding their role further would require more clinicians and wider use of teams that include nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and paramedics.
ProCare says its comprehensive primary care teams programme placed more than 90 additional health professionals across 95 practices, delivering more than 35,000 patient consultations over 12 months.
Norwell wants the programme continued and expanded.
“That eases the pressure on GPs. It spreads the workload, but ultimately the patient relationship is still with that general practice,” she says.
ProCare’s argument is that New Zealand cannot keep building more hospital capacity to meet rising demand. But shifting more care into the community would require difficult choices about where health money is spent.
Research published in the Journal of Primary Health Care in 2025 found funding channelled through primary health organisations remained at about 5% of government health spending between 2009 and 2023. In real per-person terms, it rose by only 7% over those 14 years.
Practices face rising wage, technology and operating costs, and Norwell says insufficient public funding can force them to increase patient fees.
“What we don’t want is underfunding to ultimately result in patients not accessing care,” she says.
General practice enrolment is also uneven.
At the beginning of 2025, an estimated 95% of New Zealanders were enrolled with a practice, according to the Ministry of Health. The rate was 85% for Māori, 89% for Asian people and about 88% in the most deprived communities.
Norwell says people without a regular practice may miss opportunities for preventive care and turn to an emergency department when something goes wrong.
Making health info more accessible
The manifesto also targets fragmented patient information. Norwell says people can be left repeating their medical history as they move between services, creating “inefficiency and duplication of effort”.
A national Shared Digital Health Record is already being introduced, with medication and immunisation information expected to become available through the system in late 2026, followed by primary-care data from mid-2027.
Patients will be able to limit or block the sharing of their information. ProCare also wants technology used to reduce paperwork and give clinicians more time with patients.
The manifesto calls for funding arrangements that give local providers more freedom to decide how services are delivered while holding them accountable for patient outcomes. It also seeks stronger partnerships between primary and hospital care and less micromanagement of clinicians.
The proposed bipartisan health strategy would run for 10 to 15 years, allowing practices to plan their staffing, services and technology beyond each election cycle.
‘Significant’ investment needed
ProCare argues the five-point plan could help New Zealand become a leading small nation in healthcare.
The manifesto says every $1 invested in primary care can save between $13 and $15 in hospital care. The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has previously put the saving at $14 for every dollar spent.
The manifesto does not put a total price on its proposals. Norwell says she would not name a figure without detailed analysis, but believes primary care needs “quite significant increases”.
“If we don’t put more into preventing problems in the first place, we’re going to end up with a more unaffordable system,” she says.
“And that means an unhealthier New Zealand.”
Read ProCare’s 2026 Election Manifesto here or visit procare.co.nz