The 12 month prescriptions may help a little there provided the correct decisions are made for the patient. It will save me three renewals a year. I mostly get renewals via filling a paper form and waiting a day for the doctor to review that, at $30. I'd guess for me the change will save the G.P 3x10min = 30 minutes annually + admin staff time. In theory that saving is opening between one and two additional appointments for the GP.

The three free visits proposed will cover between all and most of my remaining GP appointments. After all that..

There is really no substitute for pulling our weight internationally and training more doctors and nurses. We are just not pulling our weight there. There are encouraging signs with the new medical school under way in Waikato. Sure some of them will go somewhere else but at least we'll be pulling our weight when we are hiring from overseas if that's what we continue to do. Imo the majority return anyway and are more likely to return if the many issues can be addressed. There is a chicken egg situation with current workloads and we need to make sure we have retention for existing staff while all that is ramped. Not all of those things are entirely financial although improvements to housing will definitely help.