As chief executive of Pinnacle and a primary care paramedic I have the privilege of seeing the big picture and the frontline of primary health care.
Justin Butcher, during an Anzac Day shift as a critical care flight paramedic with the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
Across the Midland region, Pinnacle supports more than 80 general practices caring for nearly half a million people. In the Waikato we work with 40 plus general practices, about half of which are rural.
Justin Butcher
General practice is under significant strain from workforce shortages, escalating workloads and an ongoing misalignment between funding and need, and nowhere are these pressures felt more than in our rural and remote communities.
That’s why rural general practice sustainability is central to our work. As the country’s largest rural primary care network, our role is to provide backbone support to help practices not just stay afloat but thrive.
We weave our network together – offering peer support, shared tools, economies of scale, workforce initiatives and innovation that help stretch precious health resources further.
Take our investment in rural connectivity – we funded fibre connections for rural practices in 2019, long before the national rollout would reach them, making virtual health services possible.
Fast forward one year and those practices were able to provide virtual health care throughout the Covid-19 pandemic when it was needed most.
Memorandum of Understanding signed between Waikato University and four primary health organisations.
We pioneered a rural accelerated chest pain pathway which equips GPs with point-of-care diagnostics to rule out serious conditions like heart attacks, reducing unnecessary hospital transfers. We also introduced the use of handheld ultrasound devices, enabling faster, more accurate assessments in rural practices. These technologies improve outcomes while also saving time and money – for the system, and for individual patients because we know people like to stay close to home when they can.
Supporting the people behind the care matters too. We worked with Waikato University to develop their nursing degree ensuring primary care was a strong feature. We stand by the proposed third medical school, with its unique approach to graduate entry, community-focused training and strong rural focus. We helped pilot a pathway for international medical graduates to work in general practice, the success of which has attracted a funding boost for next year.
We provide a summer locum grant to help rural practices in our summer hotspots get through periods of peak demand. Finally, we carefully co-developed a telehealth service called Practice Plus with Wellington-based Primary Health Organisation Tū Ora Compass Health, providing practices with a virtual service offering that complements rather than competes with their own service, and we did it with a particular view to solutions for rural communities characterised by workforce constraints and patient access problems.
The future of rural health care won’t be secured by a single silver bullet, but by a thousand practical supports, delivered locally, that keep the doors open and the lights on.
We’re here for that work, every day.
Changing health outcomes
