New Zealand’s largest representative of general practice teams is disappointed that primary care nurses have been left out of today’s pay parity announcement.

This announcement is particularly disappointing as this is something that we have been talking about to officials for a number of months.

Bindi Norwell, Group Chief Executive Officer at ProCare says: “While today’s announcement will be good news for some 20,000 nurses in aged-care facilities, hospices and Māori or Pacific health-care organisations, it will be bittersweet for thousands of nurses in primary care who have been left out in the cold as part of today’s announcement.

“For months now we have been calling for greater funding in primary care, specifically with a view to close the gap on pay parity for our incredible nursing workforce and their Te Whatu Ora colleagues, but also to help alleviate the very real increase in total workforce cost pressures that our practices are facing,” she continues.

“We were disappointed to hear that the view from Wellington continues to be that current funding levels are sufficient to sustain primary care. This is not the case, and it’s asking practices to wear these costs at a time when they’re under significant pressure,” concludes Norwell.

Matt Prestwood, General Manager for People and Culture at ProCare says: “With chronic international and domestic shortages of doctors, nurses and other skilled clinical and non-clinical staff alike, our data shows that this unprecedented demand has inevitably placed significant workforce costs on general practices – particularly as wider costs climb sharply due to inflationary pressure.

“When nurses in hospitals are paid more than primary care nurses, despite having the same qualifications, training and responsibilities as their Te Whatu Ora counterparts, it is little wonder primary care is struggling to recruit and retain nurses,” he continues.

“We will continue to advocate on behalf of our practices to challenge the view that funding is adequate, using our comprehensive data to show an accurate and compelling picture of what running sustainable primary care looks like, and the massive downstream benefits and cost savings of adequate funding to our crucial frontline,” he concludes.