General practitioner (GP)

A GP is your family doctor. They assess, diagnose and treat people in the community. They work with people of all ages and have a broad range of medical knowledge on different health conditions.

Your GP is your first point of contact when you have a new illness or injury. They also look after your ongoing health issues and concerns if you have a chronic condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure. 

A GP works in a GP clinic or medical centre. 

A GP can help with: 

• prescribing and administering medicines
• performing minor surgery
• referring patients to other health professionals and work with them to look after patients
• assessing, diagnosing and treating people in the community
• providing treatment and health advice on long-term conditions.

If you are sick and it's not an emergency, you should visit your GP. It's best to enrol with a GP if you are eligible for publicly funded primary health services. It costs nothing to enrol. Find out if you are eligible here(external link).  

If you enrol with a GP, the cost of visiting them is subsidised. This means you pay less each time you see your doctor. You can check the list of GP clinics around your area here. 

A GP has to do at least 11 years of medical training and be registered with the Medical Council of NZ(external link) to work in New Zealand. Find out about different training options to become a general practitioner on the Careers NZ website(external link). 

General practitioner(external link) Careers NZ 
Visiting a doctor or nurse(external link) Ministry of Health, NZ
GPs (general practitioners)(external link) HealthInfo Canterbury, NZ 

1. General practitioner(external link) Careers NZ 
2. GPs (general practitioners)(external link) HealthInfo Canterbury, NZ 

Healthcare in NZ topics
Types of healthcare providers