Pāpāmoa patients upset as Consult365 medical clinic closes after nine months

Orlando, inset, was treated for a head injury six weeks ago at the Consult 365 clinic (pictured prior to opening).

A Pāpāmoa mother says the abrupt closure of an after-hours medical care clinic in the fast-growing suburb is a “real loss” after seeking treatment when her son “split his head open” and she feared not making it to Tauranga Hospital.

Consult365 Pāpāmoa opened in January as a hybrid accident and medical clinic with in-person and telehealth services. The clinic announced on its Facebook page on Friday that it would close from 9pm that day.

Its founder says it had seen 10,000 patients but needed double that or extra funding to be financially sustainable, and the decision to close was “the hardest thing”.

Health NZ said Consult365 was not eligible for capitation funding – payments based on patient enrollments – because it was not set up as a general practice.

It recognised there was “no consistent approach” to funding urgent care services and was looking into “future potential models” for this.

The clinic’s opening followed years of calls for an after-hours A&E medical centre in Pāpāmoa, led by a woman whose husband died after putting off the 25-minute drive to Tauranga when his arm swelled at night.

‘We would not have made it to Tauranga Hospital’

Pāpāmoa teacher Amie-Lee Mills said her 5-year-old son Orlando had an accident at school and “split his head open” about six weeks ago.

Mills said he was bleeding “so badly that we would not have made it to Tauranga Hospital”.

Pāpāmoa mother Amie-Lee Mills and her son Orlando, 5, who had an accident at school and required urgent medical care.

They went to Consult365 where staff saw Orlando “immediately” and stitched his wound.

She was “shocked” when she learned of the closure and felt for staff who had lost their jobs.

Mills said the clinic was “the best thing that has ever happened to this community” due to Pāpāmoa’s population growth, and described the closure as a “real loss”.

Papamoa mother Amie-Lee Mills took her 5-year-old son Orlando to Consult365 after an accident at school.

Clinic needed in suburb

Another Pāpāmoa resident went to Consult365 after having minor symptoms over a few days and was quickly diagnosed with a stroke.

The woman – who the Bay of Plenty Times agreed not to name – said the clinic’s staff directed her to go to hospital immediately.

“They said if I had been much longer, it wouldn’t have been a good outcome.”

She said Pāpāmoa needed an urgent-care clinic as the hospital in central Tauranga was 10-20km away from the coastal suburb on routes often slowed by congestion.

The woman’s daughter said a nurse noticed her mother was “slurring a bit” and “pushed her to the front of the line”.

“They were amazing. You don’t really get that service, well, anywhere else that I’ve been to.”

She estimated she and her children had been there six to 10 times for “little niggly things that you don’t want to go to the hospital for”.

‘Heartbreaking’

Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford said the closure was a “tough pill to swallow” and he was “gutted and disappointed and sad” for Pāpāmoa and the wider Bay of Plenty community.

“This can’t have been an easy decision for [Consult 365] and the impact also for those [who have] now lost their jobs - it is really heartbreaking.”

Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford. Photo / Alex Cairns

Rutherford wrote to Health Minister Shane Reti on Tuesday to discuss ensuring Pāpāmoa maintained access to quality after-hours and emergency medical care.

Rutherford said travelling to Accident and HealthCare or Tauranga Hospital, both in central Tauranga, for urgent care services presented “significant challenges”, particularly for elderly residents and families with young children.

He sought Reti’s views on how to support after-hours care, urgent care services in high-growth areas and innovative healthcare models.

‘Hardest thing I’ve ever had to do’

Emergency Consult founder and chief executive Jenni Falconer said closing the Pāpāmoa clinic had “probably been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do” and she tried “every lever possible” to keep it open.

Falconer said the company’s “innovative” model did not fit the criteria for capitation or other funding.

“We took a risk with setting it up … we delivered the model, it just wasn’t sustainable financially.”

Falconer said she tried to get funding from Health NZ and the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation.

“They loved the model and they could see the purpose of it. There hasn’t been a pocket of funding that they’ve been able to release to support it yet.”

Emergency Consult founder and chief executive Jenni Falconer. Photo / Alex Cairns

Falconer said the clinic saw 10,000 patients in nine months but needed “double the numbers” to make it sustainably patient-funded.

Falconer reduced opening hours and looked at other ways to save money “but it wasn’t enough”.

The clinic never opened 24/7, as planned, “because we never had the numbers to support it”.

After 8pm, only “one or two” patients came in.

Falconer said the decision to announce the closure on social media on its final day was to “protect the staff” as it would have been hard for them to go to work knowing they had finite time left.

Falconer said some staff had transferred to its telehealth services “but we couldn’t take everybody, unfortunately”.

“If I came into the money, I’d be opening it tomorrow because I really believe it’s what the community here needs.”

Falconer thanked the community and staff for their support.

PHO supports funding model review

Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation network services general manager Wendy Dillon said

the PHO’s funding from Te Whatu Ora had specific eligibility criteria that Consult365 Pāpāmoa did not meet – “not necessarily due to their hybrid care model”.

“To qualify for funding through the PHO, a clinic must be part of the PHO as a general practice that enrols patients, which was not the case for Consult365.”

Dillon said the PHO would continue to support its practices in Pāpāmoa and acknowledged the workforce pressure all providers were experiencing.

It was supportive of new models to meet community needs and advocated for a review of urgent care funding.

“This is a nationwide issue that we are actively addressing.”

‘No consistent approach’ to funding

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora was committed to strengthening primary healthcare, its Te Manawa Taki regional system integration group manager Lisa Gestro said.

“We also recognise that primary care is facing capacity and resource constraints and that currently, there is no consistent approach to funding urgent care service in New Zealand.

“We know that to address these issues, local innovators across the country are already developing a community of general practice with multidisciplinary teams that will inform future models.”

Gestro said Health NZ was working to support the primary care sector to shape a service delivery model that would improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders.

It had launched a primary care development programme to explore issues with clinicians and consumers then direct action based on the findings, including future potential models of care and funding approaches for urgent care and after-hours primary care.

Health Minister responds

Reti said he was “disappointed that Consult365 couldn’t make this service work”.

“It’s clear that work is required on developing a better model for primary care.

“I have sought assurances that the people of Pāpāmoa will still be able to access primary care through the four general practices located in the area, two of which are accepting new enrolments and all of which have provision in place for access to care after hours.”

The Doctors Bayfair and Tara Road Medical Centre offered acute care for walk-in patients on weekdays from 8am to 5pm.

Manager of Accident and Healthcare on 2nd Ave, Dave Gilbert, said it was “likely” Consult365′s closing would increase demand for urgent care services at the Tauranga clinic, which was open 8am to 8pm daily.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.