Primary Healthcare: Strategies for Better Health and Reduction of Inequalities

Running head: PRIMARY HEALTHCARE 1
Primary Healthcare
Student’s Name
University

PRIMARY HEALTHCARE 2
Primary Healthcare
Task one
The primary healthcare strategy was established with the vision of focusing on better
health for populations and ensuring that measures are put in place to reduce health inequalities
between different groups. New Zealand is characterized by different population groups that
require different strategies to reach out to them. According to Starfield (2011), primary
healthcare is related to the professional healthcare that is provided to the community through
practice nurse, practitioner nurse, general practitioner and pharmacists covering a broad range of
services like diagnosis, treatment, education, and prevention of disease. The Ministry of Health
(2019) reports that a strong primary healthcare system is important in the improvement of the
healthcare status of the people in the country and the reduction of healthcare inequalities that
exist within the system. The New Zealand government developed a strategy with several
directions that will be used to achieve the required outcome.
One direction is the removal of inequalities in health that create difficulties for different
groups to access healthcare in the country. The strategy is based on an evolving health system
where the needs of people are changing with time, thus requiring the need for a better-suited
environment that improves the ability to prevent illness, support chronic diseases and
maintaining the wellbeing of people in the country. To achieve this direction, the healthcare
strategy is developed on a responsive and connected information environment that allows the
making of decisions that improve the wellbeing of the people. Once there is proper information,
the collaboration between different groups with healthcare needs is improved.
Another direction is working with local communities and enrolled populations to increase
primary healthcare outcomes. Maori people are some of the local populations that are presented

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with special needs that need to be addressed. This means that working with local populations
entails developing population centered care based on the populations that have been enrolled
with specific needs. For example, the aged population needs will not be the same as the needs of
the young people while at the same time, the demographic patterns of access to care in the
country are not similar. This implies that the approach used in one population group may not
similar to another and thus the reason why this direction builds on the patient partnership to
identify the local population needs.
The primary healthcare strategy also seeks to identify and remove any inequalities in
access to care that exist. Social determinants of health and culture are some of the factors that
create inequalities. Access to health is based on the availability of healthcare centers within the
locality and designing a care process that reflects the special needs of the population. Through
diversity in the provision of healthcare, inequalities are removed to create a better environment
where health for all is achieved. The ministry of health has also prioritized the reduction of
barriers like the financial burden for groups with the greatest need in the country (Ministry of
Health, 2019). This can also be improved by developing the primary healthcare workforce and
coordinating healthcare across service areas. The government has put measures in place to ensure
that there is an increased number of primary healthcare professionals who can be employed to
work and address the needs of the population.
Lastly, there is a need to continuously improve the quality of primary healthcare using
information gathered from the previous performance. This means that the government needs to
gather data from different sources on how primary healthcare is addressed to identify the issues
that need to be addressed. Data collection entails the use of different government sources to

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collect information by measuring the performance indicators and determining how primary
healthcare has been achieved.
One strategy that was developed in line with the primary healthcare plan directions is the
New Zealand cancer plan. This plan was developed due to cancer being the leading cause of
death in the country with an estimated 23,000 people being diagnosed each year while 10,000 of
them dying every from the disease (Ministry of Health, 2019). One of the leading reasons is the
increasing older population in the country which is one of the reasons for risk factors. The role of
the cancer plan is to put measures in plan to prevent and improve detection, treatment and even
caring for affected patients. In the cancer plan, actions have been set out to improve primary
healthcare through setting for major goals.
The first outcome is to have a system for the delivery of consistent and modern cancer
care. Sullivan, et al. (2011) suggest that the burden of cancer is growing which calls for the need
to deliver affordable cancer care across all populations. Cancer challenges are exhibited by a
volatile demographic environment that varies from location to location. Slater, et al. (2016)
suggests that these differences are stark along ethnic lines with the Maori people carrying the
most disproportionate burden of cancer. This means that the cancer plan seeks to improve
primary healthcare in cancer by increasing access to care through the provision of cancer
screening services in different locations in the country to access. This is because the biggest
burden of cancer is screening and not treatment due to late diagnosis of the disease. The burden
also increases with late screening since the cost of treating the disease in its late stages is high as
compared to earlier stages. Through adequate government investments, cancer survival rates are
also improving due to better and timely diagnostics. This is reflected in the fourth outcome of the
cancer plan which has ensured that there is a cultural shift in the way health services are