Primary health care utilisation in Aotearoa New Zealand: a descriptive study of trends from 2008 to 2023
Mona Jeffreys
1 * , Maite Irurzun Lopez 1 , Claire O’Loughlin 1 , Tessa Senior 1 , Jacqueline Cumming 1
1
Abstract
The New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy (2001) and subsequent government health policy have aimed to improve access to and expand the role of nurses in primary health care. Measuring primary healthcare utilisation is one way to assess the success of such policies.
This study aimed to describe trends from 2008 to 2023 in average annual general practitioner (GP) and nurse consultations, by gender, age, ethnicity, and area-level deprivation.
Primary health care service utilisation data were obtained from the Ministry of Health.
Average GP consultations per enrolled patient per year showed little change over the study period, with increases from 2.9 in 2008 to 3.1 in 2022, and a dip in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, GP consultations were the lowest in the study period (2.8). Nurse consultations rose steadily from 0.4 in 2008 to 1.0 in 2023 and did not show a marked COVID-19-related dip. Māori had consistently lower rates of GP consultations and higher rates of nurse consultations than New Zealand Europeans. Utilisation of primary health care, particularly that provided by GPs, was low in 2023.
Possible reasons for Māori and older people consulting with nurses at higher rates should be investigated. These may be artefactual, due to our inability to age-standardise the data. Other possible reasons include nurse management of chronic conditions and barriers to accessing GP care. The fall in primary healthcare utilisation in 2023 will likely increase secondary care need.
Keywords: access, consultations, equity, general practitioner, nurse, nurse practitioner, primary health care, service utilisation.
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