Editorial: Make use of free GP visits

Use free GP visits for children while you can.

Free GP visits for children is one thing, it seems. But getting parents to take kids to the doctor is another.

Last October, Northland's district health board offered free GP visits to children aged under 13 ahead of the July 1, 2015, date the Government had set.

It gave our kids a head start. It has also put the DHB ahead of the game in terms of analysis of the benefits. And the analysis is interesting - there has been a healthy increase in some parts of our regional community. But not everyone has benefited as the DHB might have liked.

Maori children are at the forefront of health issues in Northland, but their parents or caregivers have shown the least uptake of the free visits. In other words, our region's sickest kids have not benefited as much as the DHB would have liked. In some areas, by only 1 per cent.

The DHB is drilling into why, so it can work out how to encourage parents to take their sick kids to the doctor.

Some parents may not know about the free visits, they may not have transport to get there, some may struggle to identify that their child is sick.

It can be challenging determining a child's illness or injury.

Is it just a cold? Do they just have sore muscles after vigorous play?

For most parents, free GP visits allow you to err on the side of caution, and take your child to the doctor.

But the Northland DHB research shows that getting there is not that easy for everyone.

Perhaps the visits need to be taken to the people, in the form of community clinics?

The Government's free GP initiative is only going to improve the health of some children, and it will miss the mark when it comes to helping the kids who need it most.

Based on what Northland has learned, education, marketing and understanding of why Maori kids aren't being taken to the doctor needs to happen quickly, otherwise the initiative will be deemed a failure.