Extended Primary Care

Extended Primary Care (EPC) aims to support practices to manage acutely unwell patients, to reduce ED and hospital usage and to support equity of access for priority populations.

It is funded by Te Whatu Ora across the five Te Waipounamu (South Island) PHOs outside of Canterbury.

  • Extended Primary Care offers practices the opportunity to manage a wider range of acute conditions.

  • It also recognises the care and time required of rural practices to hold a patient awaiting ambulance transfer to hospital.

  • Thus, this funding also allows rural practices the ability to claim for their time and interventions when stabilising a patient ahead of transport to hospital.

  • It is based on providing a package of care to the patient rather than our specific intervention-based claiming now.


The fundamental change this programme brings is that it recognises and funds the time taken to provide acute care in general practice, as an alternative to referring someone to hospital.