The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

“Modern general practice relies on teams of people working together including practice managers, nurses and receptionists to support patients. And research shows that areas with good primary care have better health outcomes, including mortality rates, heart disease rates, infant mortality, and earlier detection of cancers.”

Dr Pert says the future of the health workforce is one of the College’s key focuses and alongside Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) and the Medical Council, the College last week released a discussion document outlining proposed changes to the General Practice Education Programme.

“With a growing elderly population, rising and constant change in treatments and technology, we need to equip GPs to take on an increasingly complex role. We also know that we need to make the general practitioner role more attractive as a career.

“The GPs of the future will have much closer links to local hospitals and will need to be prepared for emerging models of care that have services being increasingly provided outside traditional hospital settings.

“The proposed changes to the training programme will help to meet the needs of the ageing population and the new roles GPs will need to play in the overall provision of health care to individuals and communities.

“These are exciting and challenging times for general practice, and the College is proud to mark World Family Doctor Day with other family doctors around the world.”

World Family Doctor Day was officially launched by the President of the World Organization of Family Doctors (Wonca) at their world conference in Cancun last May.

The day was initiated to create solidarity amongst family doctors globally.