Trends in primary health care

The aim of this project is to give an overview of what we know about access to primary health care in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Project outline

We are analysing enrolments, fees, utilisation, barriers to access and funding of primary health care services.

These analyses will give us a broad understanding of what has happened to each of these indicators over the past two decades since the Primary Health Care Strategy was implemented in 2001.

This sort of evidence allows us to assess where we have come from, in terms of access to primary health care and allows analysis of recent data to understand what changes are currently happening, and how these may be influencing access.

Equity is central to this project, and our primary focus on equity is for Māori.

We also perform analyses of data on Pacific peoples, by age, sex, income level and deprivation. Where possible, we look at multiple levels of these, e.g. access to care among Māori on low incomes. This approach can give an indication of where policies are and are not working for some people.

Contact

For further information about this project, contact Dr Maite Irurzun Lopez or Associate Professor Mona Jeffreys.

Dr Mona Jeffreys

Associate Professor (Research)

Health Services Research Centre

• mona.jeffreys@vuw.ac.nz
• RH 419, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay

Publications

The research team

Maite Irurzun Lopez

Dr Maite Irurzun Lopez is a health and development economist, working on financing of primary health care, equity in access to services, and economic evaluation of health promotion interventions. Maite has trained and worked internationally over the last 20 years. Her areas of expertise include the economics of epidemics (HIV/AIDS, meningitis, dengue fever, Ebola), the cost of epidemiological surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases, and sexual and reproductive health programs in low-income settings.

In this project, she is working with administrative data on enrolments and access to primary health care as well as with PHO funding data.

Mona Jeffreys

Associate Professor Mona Jeffreys is an epidemiologist with a specific interest in access to care and health equity. She trained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Bristol (UK). Mona has worked on a number of projects that have used national collections of data in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the current project, she is responsible for the analysis of the New Zealand Health Survey data.

Lis Ellison-Loschmann

Lis Ellison-Loschmann (Te Atiawa, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa) is an epidemiologist, with a specific interest in respiratory illnesses, cancer and access to care for Māori.

Jackie Cumming

Jackie Cumming is an advisor to the research team. She is a past Director of the Health Services Research Centre.

Pushkar Raj Silwal

Pushkar Raj Silwal is a public health professional. Trained in population health at the University of Auckland, Pushkar has worked in international organisations in health system strengthening. He is pursuing a PhD in health system performance management and policy, and his areas of interest include health system improvement, big data, and policy research.

In the current project, Pushkar is analysing the New Zealand PHO enrolment dataset, the Mortality dataset, and the National Minimum dataset.

Tessa Senior

Tessa Senior is research assistant at Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora—Health Services Research Centre and a student of Health Psychology at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

Previous staff

Abdul Azeez Abdul Wahab

Abdul Azeez Abdul Wahab is a health economist and visiting fellow at the Health Services Research Centre—Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora. He has conducted international comparisons on the effects of public health care expenditure. His current work centres on trends in household expenditure on health based on the New Zealand Household Expenditure Survey.

Ali Leota

Ali Leota is a student in the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Health (Te Wāhanga Tātai Hauora, Te Herenga Waka). He was a summer scholar at the Health Services Research Centre—Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora in 2019–2020 and was responsible for conducting an analysis on access to primary health care for Pacific people, using New Zealand Health Survey data. He is currently writing this up for publication.