Profile too low for Brash

By KEVIN TAYLOR

If you don't know what Primary Health Organisations are you're in high-profile company - even National's leader Don Brash doesn't.

The biggest reforms in primary health-care for 50 years have passed with little headline-grabbing debate since the first two PHOs opened for business two years ago today.

Politically PHOs have been a non-issue - evidence of how effectively Labour's political management of the issue has been, thanks to large cash injections and a basic aim of providing cheaper access to the doctor for those most in need.

But the low profile has also ensured widespread ignorance.

Shortly after he was elected as National's leader last year, Dr Brash approached a NZ Doctor reporter at a function to ask what a PHO was.

NZ Doctor editor Barbara Fountain says she was "astonished" by his ignorance, but Dr Brash is not alone.

In January, the Ministry of Health started a $689,200 multi-media advertising campaign to tell the public about the reforms. It finishes in December but the ministry may extend it into next year.

But the NZ Medical Association General Practitioners Council says the campaign implies all patients will get cheaper GPs' fees when that's not the case. The complaints have prompted a hasty rewrite of the advertising script.

Council chairman Peter Foley says the advertisements promoted the message that PHOs meant cheaper fees when for possibly 1.5 million people a visit to the doctor might have got more expensive.

Many people aged between 18 and 65 get no benefits unless they are enrolled in a low-fee Access PHO.

Health Minister Annette King says the Government did not want to raise public expectations too early before enough PHOs had started operating.