Labour proposes low-interest loans to help doctors buy into or set up an owner-operated general practice. A loan would cover up to 90 percent of the buy-in cost to a maximum of $500,000, be interest-free for two years and then charge 3 percent, with ten years to repay. Up to 50 would be available a year from 1 July 2027, targeted at communities with no GP clinic or where practices have closed their books.
A doctor could borrow up to 90 percent of the cost of buying into a practice, to a maximum of $500,000. The document restricts it to owner-operated practices and excludes corporate-owned ones, on the stated grounds of backing locally run clinics connected to their communities.
No interest and no repayments for the first two years. Monthly repayments then begin on the outstanding balance, and an annual interest rate of 3 percent applies from that point. The full term is ten years.
Up to 50 loans a year, one per doctor, targeted to communities with no GP clinic or where practices have partially or fully closed their books. The document does not set out how those communities would be identified.
Rather than a new institution, the loans would run through the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme, which already exists, from 1 July 2027.
The document argues the number of owner-operated practices is falling because buying in is unaffordable for younger GPs who already carry student loans and mortgages, and that this leaves fewer clinics in smaller towns and rural areas.
These scenarios and figures are Labour’s own, from the document.
“Providing low-interest loans will back those doctors who want to spend their careers caring for their local communities.”
“Practices are expensive to establish, difficult to run, and high interest rates make taking on that risk even harder.”
Points the document defers or leaves undefined. These are gaps in the document, not criticisms of the policy.
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