Nurses there to generate care, not income

I was delighted recently to be asked to open the Goodfellow Symposium held at the Tamaki Campus of the School of Population Health in Auckland. It was the second outing for the Symposium. Around 300 registrants; GPs, practice nurses, pharmacists and medical students came together for two days.

The keynote speech was given by a Nurse Practitioner – Wendy Fairhurst-Winstanley - from the UK where she works as a partner in a general practice.
Wendy described the opportunities that exist within UK general practice for innovative team approaches. On a background of a totally capitated service with extraordinarily generous funding for staff it certainly allows for innovation. Wendy perceptively allayed some fears – she is a Nurse Practitioner who passionately believes in collaboration and teamwork.

Like our primary care-centred health service there is more than enough work for everyone.

She firmly believes teamwork is the only way to work. The UK funding system allows the patient to see the person with the most suitable skills needed rather than that decision be driven by funding imperatives.

Nurses are there to generate care not income, was one of the quotes she used!
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, both centrally and locally, have had a long and close relationship with the Goodfellow Unit. Many of the registrants especially the seminar attendees and the medical students were in some part subsidised by funds from the local College Faculty. Another case of GPs actively encouraging new recruits into general practice with the use of their own funds.

This relationship between the College and the Goodfellow Unit is growing and strengthening as the years go by. The College has a keen desire to see the Goodfellow Unit offer more and more continuing education services for general practitioners, practice nurses and other primary healthcare professionals in New Zealand. With Primary Care now at the core of the New Zealand health service the College has an important responsibility in ensuring quality education exists for the workforce.

We welcome the Unit’s work in developing continuing education CDs, their CME and CNE, and have talked with Professor McCormick as to how we can export this sort of activity to other parts of the country.

The College intends to strengthen New Zealand CME in future years by being more prescriptive about both its quality and its curriculum. One of our current strategic objectives is to lead, set and review standards for GP education and assessment

Thus our Boards of Education and Assessment will be publishing their strategic plans for education and assessment in general practice.

At the same time the College intends to lead, set and review standards for patient centred care for both GPs and GP teams. Our Board of Quality will publish its strategic plan in conjunction with practice nurses and managers.
Continuing education for general practitioners and other primary healthcare professionals has never been as important as it is now. The future of general practitioners and their colleagues depends on their being able to keep up to date, and also to develop new skills that may lead to special interests and new opportunities for growth of their practice. Developing special interests is a well recognised way of retaining workers in general practice.

During this improvement process we expect to work with major providers such as the Goodfellow Unit. We have had a clear message from our members that there is a tremendous thirst for high quality continuing education. There is also the pressure from our regulating bodies, the Ministry and the population for their health care workers to be of the highest standards.

The Goodfellow Unit began in 1978 and was initially funded by Mr Douglas Goodfellow who wished to assist general practice and at the same time commemorate the life and work of his father, Sir William Goodfellow, who founded Amalgamated Marketing in 1928.

The Goodfellow Unit operates under a Memorandum of Agreement between the Goodfellow Foundation, The University of Auckland and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

The Goodfellow Trust is a Charity that has as its purpose the advancement of postgraduate and continuing education and professional development in general practice as a first priority and also other primary health care services in New Zealand.

Another important aspect to these educational gatherings is making or renewing relationships with colleagues and rubbing shoulders with members of other professions. Our research has shown that it is the isolated practitioner who does not form professional relationships who is most at risk of coming unstuck or just leaving primary care. I enjoyed catching up with people I hadn’t seen for years and hearing their take on where the College currently is.

The symposium dinner was held in the new atrium at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. A fine venue especially appropriate coming just before ANZAC Day. There was much talk at our table of submariners and their peculiar odours after weeks at sea. Head of the Auckland School of Medicine, Professor Des Gorman spoke of his experiences in various navies around the world before reminding us that the future of the health service is with Primary Care - he is going to be one of our ardent supporters. That support and those words shows the message is getting through.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the fine work done for general practice by Peter Foley as he moves from the NZMA’s GP Council to become the overall Chair – a GP at the head of their professional tale.