New Zealand spends just 6% of its total health budget on primary care, against an OECD average of 14%. That chronic underspend has produced a workforce crisis so severe the government is quietly conscripting pharmacists to plug the gap. For employers watching staff burn sick leave on conditions that should take a day to resolve, this is not an abstract policy debate. It is a direct productivity drain.
The GP pipeline is running dry
The RNZCGP’s 2024 Workforce Survey paints a grim picture. The median GP age is 51. Seventeen percent are at or past retirement age, with 6% aged 70 or older. Average weekly hours rose from 35.9 in 2022 to 38.1 in 2024, because fewer GPs are doing the same volume of work. Only 61.9% of their time goes to patient consultations. And just 2% of GPs work in the most rural areas.
The result is predictable. 25.7% of adult New Zealanders cannot access their GP in a timely manner. For children, the figure is 18.5%. GP teams still handle 24 million patient encounters annually, seventeen times the volume of emergency departments, but the cracks are visible everywhere.
Pharmacies are absorbing the overflow without being paid for it
Community pharmacies have become the de facto first point of contact. A PSNZ workforce survey found an 80% increase in requests from patients unable to access general practice, a 54% jump in minor condition queries, and a 43% rise for more serious conditions.
Whangarei pharmacist Iain Buchanan, with 30 years of experience, confirms the shift. He reports spending up to 20 minutes per patient on what amounts to unfunded clinical work: “You are not funded for that so you have to sell something over the counter to pay wages.” A University of Otago study found 15-50% of pharmacist daily activities are unfunded customer services. Pharmacy Guild CEO Andrew Gaudin calls it “a vital, but unfunded, triage and referral role.”
Meanwhile, the network is shrinking. By September 2025, 1.8 million New Zealanders accessed community pharmacy services monthly, up from 1.69 million in 2022. But pharmacy numbers fell from 1,091 to 1,069. Pakuranga pharmacist Vicky Chan told Newsroom there have been nearly 100 community pharmacy closures since 2020 in east Auckland alone.
The model that works is about to lose its funding
The most promising reform is the Comprehensive Primary and Community Care Teams programme, which embeds pharmacist prescribers directly inside GP practices. Dr Kavi Deo of Grey Lynn Family Medical Centre described it as “transformative”, with patients now booking directly with pharmacists for medication management. ProCare CEO Bindi Norwell says it “helps free up GP time for the complex care only they can provide.”
The problem is that CPCT funding was set to end on 30 June 2026. PSNZ, CAPA, and the Maori Pharmacists Association issued a joint statement calling for continuation, with PSNZ president Michael Hammond warning that expanded skill mix in general practice teams “is increasing public access to healthcare and improving health outcomes.” Pulling the funding would unwind years of progress just as the model proves its value.
The government’s $285 million bet
The response is a $285 million, three-year funding package for general practices from July 2025, with performance incentives tied to extended hours and same-day urgent appointments. A July 2025 Cabinet paper sets a target of greater than 80% of people accessing primary care within one week. 12-month prescriptions for stable conditions could save patients up to $105 annually in GP fees.
These are sensible measures. They are also insufficient for the scale of the problem. You cannot fix a system running at half the OECD funding rate with performance bonuses.
What this means for employers
Every worker who cannot get a GP appointment is a productivity loss. Minor illnesses become multi-day absences. Parents burn leave on children’s health appointments that drag on. Presenteeism spreads illness through offices. The pharmacy expansion, if properly funded, offers faster treatment for routine conditions and fewer days lost waiting for a GP slot.
But as Zoom Health director David Taylor warns, “Relying on retail margins to keep essential health services viable is no longer sustainable.” A pharmacy network under financial stress, losing locations, and burning out staff does not solve the access problem. It just shifts the bottleneck.
The policy direction is right. Pharmacists can and should take on more clinical work. But asking them to do it without proper funding, while simultaneously debating whether to deregulate ownership rules in ways that favour discount chains over community pharmacies, is how you turn a promising reform into another half-funded compromise. Employers waiting for the primary care system to stop dragging on their operations should not hold their breath.
Sources
- Ministry of Health: Primary Care Funding Boost Factsheet (2025-03)
- RNZCGP: 2024 Workforce Survey Snapshot Report (2024)
- NZ Herald / Northern Advocate: Northland pharmacists step in as GP appointment wait times continue to create barriers
- Newsroom: For pharmacists, industry changes are a hard pill to swallow (2026-02-02)
- Impact PR / Zoom Health: Pharmacy Funding Reform Needed in New Zealand
- PSNZ: Funding needs to continue for Comprehensive Primary and Community Care Teams
- Cabinet Paper: Update on Primary Health Care Strategic Priorities (July 2025) (2025-07)
- NZ Herald: 12-month prescriptions begin as pharmacists warn of workload strain
- RNZ: Pharmacist fears for ‘last bastion’ of communities