Pinnacle Annual Performance Report 2022–2023 released

Tēnā koutou katoa.
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangaranga maha o te wā, tēnā koutou.
E mihi ana ki a koutou mō ō koutou tautoko me ō koutou mahi i te tau kua hipa.
Ka whakarongo ake ki ngā wawata o te tau e heke mai ana.
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Greetings to you all.
To the powers, the voices, the many calls of the times, greetings to you.
Thank you for your support and work over the past year.
We listen and look forward to the aspirations of the upcoming year.
Greetings, greetings, greetings to you all.

On the back of the global pandemic and its ongoing challenges, this past year has been further testament to the resilience and adaptability of the primary care sector. While we’ve faced some unexpected hurdles, our commitment to our mission and values has not wavered.

We’ve grappled with pay disparities between primary and secondary care, an unprecedented workforce crisis and the evolving needs of our diverse communities. Economic pressures, along with rising living costs exacerbate these challenges. In response, our strategy is firmly set on nurturing and retaining our workforce and supporting and advocating for our network, ensuring they feel valued, motivated, and integral to our shared vision.

Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) has guided us, and while the vision is clear, there is still no action plan or detailed primary care road map to share with staff and stakeholders. Pinnacle is therefore focused on five key pillars that we believe hold the potential for change: health equity, general practice, primary care nursing, child and youth, and long-term (chronic) conditions.

We are actively advocating for a comprehensive reform of the capitation formula to better serve our diverse communities. Since 2000, our capitation funding system has distributed approximately $108 million annually to general practices. However, this formula, now decades old, doesn’t reflect current health needs, particularly regarding ethnicity, an increasing lifespan, and the prevalence of long-term conditions.

Although equity adjustments were introduced in January 2023 with increased funding for Māori and Pasifika patients, only a fraction of our practices benefited.

We will continue to advocate tirelessly for primary care, ensuring every individual within our community thrives. As we commence a new year, our resolve is stronger than ever.

To our practices and district managers, teams and whānau in Tairāwhiti and Coromandel who were affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events this year, we commit to providing the support you need for the transition to recovery. We have used key learnings from these incidents to boost our capabilities in responsiveness to our localities.

In reflecting upon the year behind and looking to the future, it is imperative to acknowledge the looming presence of climate change and its potential repercussions. Prioritising the resilience of the network in response to these challenges will be a focus for the next year.

While we wait for the detailed primary care road map, early indicators suggest we are well placed to meet the future challenges head on, but ensuring the sustainability of our network amidst present financial and workforce constraints will be a key challenge.

We acknowledge and thank our team for your steadfast mahi; together, the culture we have developed together is outstanding. To our members, we know you are operating in a particularly demanding social and community environment, and we thank you for keeping primary care afloat, with your innovation and willingness to adapt and carry on. We’re equally grateful to Pinnacle’s leadership team, executive committee and the directors of our subsidiaries for their wise stewardship in these trying times.

As we step into the future, we are ready to embrace what comes, always committed to supporting you towards our common purpose: To deliver primary care that supports all people to thrive by realising their health and wellbeing potential. 

Tēnā rā koutou katoa,

Craig McFarlane, Chairperson, and Justin Butcher, Kaiwhakatere, CEO