Current child health policies and services
available to all families and children in New Zealand:
Plunket checks, once your baby is six
weeks old a Plunket nurse will take over health visits from your midwife or
lead maternity carer (LMC) (Ministry of Health, 2013; Pollock, 2012). This
means that a Plunket nurse will come to your home and provide you with general
health advice and support while doing general health checks on your baby, encompassing the Well Child checks and book (kidshealth.org.nz, 2012; Ministry
of Health, 2013; Plunket, n.d.; wellchild.org.nz, 2011). The Well Child books
used to be called “Plunket” books, before 1996 (Ministry of Health, 1996; Patterson,
n.d.). 
Well Child checks were introduced in 1996, as a way to improve and
centralise child health (Ministry of Health, 1996). These Well Child checks can
be done by a health provider of your choice, many people use the local Plunket
nurse, but you are able to use any health provider you feel comfortable with, a
GP, Māori or Pacific health provider or Public Health Nurse. The Well Child checks are for children up to
the age of 5 (kidshealth.org.nz, 2012; Ministry of Health, 2013; wellchild.org.nz,
2011).
All of the above services are
free to all New Zealand children.
Free Doctors’ visit for under 6’s is a policy brought in by Labour in 2008, however there was a $32.50 subsidy introduced in 1997 that was widely
known as “free under sixes policy” (Hodgson, 2007, para. 13). Nevertheless, doctors were still able to charge
patients for consultations so, visits to the doctor may not have been free for
all. The Labour government wanted all
children to be able to access their GP’s readily. Hodgson (2007) stated “we don’t want
parents thinking twice about taking their young children to the doctors because
of how much it costs” (para. 3). This
policy has not been entirely successful though, in 2010 only 78% of doctors
were providing free visits to under 6’s (Fancourt, Turner, Asher, & Dowell,
2010). Also, even though doctors’
visits are free for under 6’s this applies, mostly, during business hours. Unfortunately,
children do not only get sick between 9 and 5 and the cost of after-hours medical
care is too expensive for many families (Fancourt, Turner, Asher, & Dowell,
2010; Hill, 2013). “The goal of universal free care remains unmet, particularly for after-hours care, and maybe contributing to poor child health statistics in New Zealand” (Fancourt,
Turner, Asher, & Dowell, 2010, p. 339 ). The National Party’s 2011 policy
states that “National will extend free afterhours care for children under six, roll
out a comprehensive afterhours telephone health advice service with access to
nurses, GPs, and pharmacists”, however, I am yet to find any evidence to confirm
that this policy has been implemented.
My next blog will look at where
to from here and possible partnerships between early childhood settings and
health providers.
References:
Fancourt, N., Turner, N., Asher,
M. I., & Dowell, T. (2010). Primary health care funding for
children
under six years of age in New Zealand: Why is this so hard? Journal of
Primary Health Care, 2(4),
338-342. Retrieved from
Hill, M. (2013, February 17).
Free healthcare? Yeah right. The Press. Retrieved
from
Hodgson, P. (2007). More support for free doc visits for under-6’s.
Retrieved from
Kidshealth.org.nz. (2012). Well child/tamariki ora services for under
fives. Retrieved from
Ministry of Health. (1997). Well child/Tamariki ora. National schedule. Wellington,
New
Zealand:
Author.
Ministry of Health. (2013). Well Child/Tamariki Ora. Retrieved from
Neal, I. (2012, June 24). Ministry ‘hides test’s real
purpose’. Retrieved from
New Zealand National Party. (2011). Policy 2011. Health: Primary Care. Retrieved from
Patterson, K. (n.d.). Plunket
nurse. Retrieved from
Plunket. (n.d.). Plunket.
Retrieved from http://www.plunket.org.nz/.
Pollock, K. (2012). Story: Child and youth health: Page 6 –
Primary health initiatives. Te
Ara: The encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
Retrieved from
Wellchild.org.nz. (2011). Well child/tamariki
ora. Retrieved from
The Government certainly provides a good health care package for children 6 years and under (for those who access it). This health care package I found essential, in the affordability, for managing my children’s health. These policies and services ensure New Zealand parents have affordable access to health care for their young children.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the services you mentioned above, the Government also offers free dental for children up to 18 years of age. However, despite this Government initiative the numbers of young children with tooth decay is increasing. Here is an interesting article published by The New Zealand Hearld http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10710408. It seems that even though the Government has health policies and services available to New Zealand children, as a matter of sustaining children’s wellbeing, some of these seem to be rather ineffective.
Hi Angie,
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your blog and find the various perspectives really interesting. As you have outlined what the New Zealand government provides and funds with regards to the health care system, this paints a positive picture for me, as I believe it is a great deal.
Coming from South Africa, which is a society where most middle to higher income families do not use the public health system and all have their own private ‘Medical Aide schemes’ (Health Insurance) I was slightly hesitant to use the public health services here in New Zealand. However, the system here is completely different to back there.
The first time I had to use the public health system here (hospital) was when I fell pregnant with Callia (my first born). I was blown away with what we were offered and what was provided by the government. Basically all the medical attention that we had with the pregnancy, and then it resulting in an emergency c-section, 5 days in the hospital with Callia and then 6 weeks of care by my midwife, never cost us a cent. This is not heard of is South Africa. If I was living there, this experience would be slightly different. Should I have been contributing to a medical aide scheme, most of these costs would be covered by the private health insurance company (should I have had enough funding available) and then once I left hospital I would not have received any post natal care or would’ve had to pay for additional doctor visits. I would’ve gone to a private hospital where I would not have had the luxury of my own room with my baby, I would have been in a ward with at least 4 others.
With regards to all the other health services the government funds here in New Zealand, like Plunket, children under 6 not paying for doctor’s visits and medication being subsidised, this is incredible to me. As in South Africa, medical aide premiums and the cost of doctors and medication is extremely high. You pay for each doctor’s visit (or your medical aide pays) regardless of the person’s age and generally medication is not subsidised.
I agree with you in that what New Zealand currently offers with regards to funding of health care is good, however like with anything, there’s always room for improvement. However I do also believe that not everyone will be 100% satisfied.
non medical home care services I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
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