Free under-five GP visits top priority

Putting in place free visits to the GP for children under-five years was their top health priority, Health Minister Bill English and Associate Health Minister Neil Kirton said today.

"We expect this will be part of a wider strategy to improve child health. Implementation of the policy will require co-operation from general practioners, but there is strong support for it from the public. There is a wide-spread belief in the community that young children have not been getting the health care they need because of the cost of going to see the doctor.

"This has been an area of some contention between the Government and GPs historically, but we are sure we can make it work," said Mr English and Mr Kirton.