Latest primary care updates

The Minister of health announced further funding to support more nurse practitioners to enter the primary care workforce and increased funding to support more primary care nurses to upskill and pursue advanced education.

You can read the Minister’s media statement here Greater role for nurses in primary care | Beehive.govt.nz (external link)

The initiatives include:

Increased nurse practitioner training

An investment of $34.2 million over five years will see funded places for nurse practitioners training in primary care grow to 120 a year from 2026.

This will boost the size of this important workforce by increasing the number of registered nurses training to be nurse practitioners.

Nurse practitioners may be the lead healthcare provider for patients and their whanau. They can provide complex care to patients, prescribe medicines and help reduce workforce pressures in primary and community health care.

Next steps

Registrations for the 2026 nurse practitioner training will open later in the year. Information on how nurses can prepare for this training will be published on our website.

More advanced education opportunities for registered nurses

An investment of $21.6 million over four years to accelerate advanced tertiary education for up to 120 primary care registered nurses a year will make it easier for New Zealanders to get the health care and medicines they need closer to home.

This funding will encourage more primary care registered nurses to upskill and pursue advanced education, including registered nurse prescriber post-graduate papers. The initiative will begin in July 2025.  

Next steps

Information on how to apply for this funding will be available on our website in the coming weeks.

The Minister of Health announced further initiatives which will improve access to primary care relating to increased training and graduate placements to support the primary care doctor pipeline.

You can read the Minister’s media statement here:

More locally trained doctors in primary care | Beehive.govt.nz (external link)

The new initiatives include:

Increased medical school placements

• An increase in the number of training placements for doctors at medical schools by a further 25 each year. Medical placements have already increased by 75 each year since 2024. This additional funding will bring the total to 100, seeing the cap on first-year medical school enrolments increased to 639 annually from 2026. 

Funded primary care Pathway

• Up to 50 New Zealand-trained graduate doctors a year to train in primary care settings. This initiative will allocate $23.3 million over four years to introduce a funded primary care pathway to registration for New Zealand-trained graduate doctors.  
• Graduate doctors who are interested in primary care will be given an opportunity early in their careers to follow that interest.   Placements in primary care settings mean doctors connect into those communities, can quickly put their skills to use, and are more likely to stay in those settings.  
  The funding covers provider funding, clinical supervision in primary care, and coordination costs. This programme will begin in 2026. 

Next steps

Health New Zealand will update primary care providers on the process for 2026 as further information becomes available. Graduates wanting to train in primary care will be able to register their interest as part of the 2026 ACE RMO intake. 

Today the Minister of Health made several announcements which will increase timely access to primary care for all New Zealanders, including supporting more doctors and nurses into the primary care workforce.

You can read the Minister’s media statement here, Healthcare boost means seeing a GP, faster (external link), and read a summary of the key parts of the package below.

Funding uplift for general practices  

Additional funding of $95 million per year ($285 million over 3 years) will be made available from July 2025 for general practices through three targeted funds:

• A base enhanced capitation payment to practices that meet pre-conditions focused primarily on access to services
• An additional outcomes-based enhanced capitation payment linked to performance against key targets (to be developed with the sector)
• Activity based funding to deliver more specialist interventions in primary care settings.

The new access, outcomes, and activity-based uplifts will resource general practices to recruit additional staff, and to expand and modernise their premises, service offerings, and digital infrastructure.

This will improve access to primary care appointments for New Zealanders and reduce cost growth in the hospital sector.

Next Steps

Health New Zealand will engage with the sector on the specific eligibility criteria for the funding.  At the same time, we will be modernising capitation rates to take better account of need.

Workforce

Two new initiatives aimed at increasing and retaining doctors and nurses in primary care:

• Introducing a more streamlined process to allow 100 more overseas trained doctors to undertake their prevocational training in primary care settings over 2025 and 2026. 
• Funding to incentivise employers to support a further 400 primary care placements for graduate registered nurses from 2025 (starting with those who graduate in 2025). The application process to recruit graduate registered nurses into primary settings will be open shortly.

Next Steps

An Expression of Interest will be open for overseas trained doctors shortly.   The application process to recruit graduate registered nurses into primary settings will open shortly.

Increased digital consultation availability

Plans to introduce a service that will increase the availability of digital consultations which do not require patients to be seen in person.

In addition to core general practice, this service is intended to provide complementary access to primary care for people, help manage demand for primary care services and will include providing care for people not enrolled with general practice.

Next steps

The service will be launched mid-year supported by a public awareness campaign. We will provide more details on the service over the coming months.