Dr Ngaire Ellis is one of the new GPs at the new medical centre in Brookfield. Photo / George Novak
A community which has spent 20 years without a local GP says the area's new medical centre is a "blessing".
Opening the centre doors has been a seven-year process that started after the local pharmacy noticed a high need for one in the area.
The centre, Family Doctors Brookfield, opened on May 10 opposite Otūmoetai Primary School in the same building as an already established physio. It is expected to ease the load on nearby doctors' practices.
The building was bought two years ago by Jane and Murray Hay and is between the Brookfield, Otūmoetai and Bellevue suburbs.
The couple also owns Family Doctors in Pyes Pā and The Lakes.
There are only two other practices in the area - Otūmoetai Doctors, which has partially closed its books, and The Doctors Bureta which is still open to enrolments, according to the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation.
A spokeswoman from the primary health organisation said the original Brookfield Medical Centre was on the New World site before moving to Bureta Rd and rebranding as The Doctors Bureta.
Unichem Brookfield Pharmacy co-owner Nigel Gregory said "a big hole" was left in the community when the old medical centre moved in the early 2000s.
Gregory has been at the pharmacy for 21 years and co-owns it with his wife, Helen, who had been there for 30 years.
About 20 years ago, they saw the old medical centre move to Bureta Rd to make way for expansions to the supermarket.
Although the centre was less than 3km away, it was "too far for a lot of people".
"A lot of our patients, especially the elderly, would have to take taxis or buses to get to the medical centre. It just left a big hole in this area.
"We've even had to drive people in our car to the medical centre because people can't get there."
About seven years ago, he spoke to Dr Murray Hay, who owned Family Doctors Bethlehem at the time in a bid to find a solution.
He said having a practice back in the community was "really good" - a lot of people can just walk to it, and many patients in the area were signing up.
"The area would be classed as a high-needs area, lower socio-economic, and having a doctor close completes the community. We've got everything else ... the one thing that was really missing was a doctor close by."
His wife, Helen, said the new centre was "a blessing" for the community.
Doctor Murray Hay is part of HBU - a free mobile clinic run by Te Rūnanga O Ngāi Te Rangi Iwi Trust and remembered setting up in Brookfield outside the pharmacy about nine years ago for two years.
"It was long enough for me to recognise that there was no GP in the area and there was a need."
Around this time, he became friends with Gregory, who later asked Hay to help him look at options for getting a centre closer to the community.
"I became aware that he and his wife were carrying the burden for that part of the city for health care."
He said the Gregorys would do services not usual for a pharmacy, such as driving people to appointments.
"They were the heroes."
Hay and his wife, Jane, began looking to open a centre in Brookfield seven years ago.
The housing density meant finding a place that met medical centre requirements and was near the shopping centre took years.
The current location, across the road from Otumoetai Primary School, is central to Brookfield, Bellevue and Otūmoetai.
They bought the building two years ago but delays caused by Covid-19 meant the centre's opening was delayed.
Jane said while they could be retired, they saw a "real need" for clinics in the city.
"We can see the need and we're willing to invest."
Ngaire Ellis is one of the two new doctors and said there was a demand for a local doctor, and those who lived in the area and needed a GP were finding the new location handy.
Andrew Corin is the other doctor at the clinic and the pair are contractors.
While many of her patients are ones that moved with her from her previous practice at The Doctors Bureta, new ones were trickling in.
A local doctor was important for many reasons, she said, and the busy, congested nature of Tauranga meant it was more convenient to have a doctor down the road.
Ellis was a junior doctor at the last medical centre in Brookfield but she moved in 1996, and the centre moved to the Bureta location several years later.
"In those years since moving, we've had huge growth ... this part of town hasn't been well serviced since then."
Not having a local GP was a disadvantage to those who couldn't travel far, she said, especially the elderly, disabled, and mums with young children.
Being within the community also meant the doctors could work closely with other health providers, and home visits were easier.
Ellis' life has come full circle, having gone to Otumoetai Primary before high school in Rotorua. In the 1990s, she was a junior doctor in Tauranga before moving overseas.
She moved back to Tauranga five years ago and said the demographics and geography of the area hadn't changed a lot, except for fewer orchards in Otūmoetai, more intensive housing and more traffic.
However, she remembered the neighbouring suburb Bethlehem when it was orchards with a post office, butcher and no houses. Pāpāmoa was sand dunes and the Lakes was a swamp.
"With the growth of Tauranga, there's definitely a need for more doctors, and you'll find a lot of practices have had to shut their books."
Otūmoetai Doctors acting practice manager Tania Harawira said the centre was nearing capacity with some doctors closed to new enrolments.
"There was such a shortfall of doctors around locally. I think, more than anything, the new centre has been quite a welcome for the area."
She said they had a lot of Brookfield patients, and beyond, coming in to see if they could enrol.
"We had to put zoning in because there were too many people wanting to come in."
She said with the constant growth of the area, more clinics and centres opening up were expected and needed.
Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation practice services general manager Phil Back said not every suburb had its own medical centre and not all people chose to use their nearest medical centre.
Centres are privately-owned businesses that contract with the Primary Health Organisation, and setting up a practice was a business decision that relied on a sustainable population to be financially stable, he said.
There are 31 general practices from Katikati to Te Puke that are funded by the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation.
Sandra Grogan
Otūmoetai
I've lived here since 1971 and I would hate to move. It's a lovely family place to live.
Isaac Rangikotua
Otūmoetai
I moved here a year ago and it's a very chilled, laid back area. It has nice walking paths.
Nan and Jone Cranston
Otūmoetai
It's got everything you need: a butcher, shops, a post office, a lovely florist.
Karina Warnings
Brookfield
It's a beautiful community and has everything right here which is good so you don't have to travel in the bad traffic to get to the CBD.
He founded Kiwi Can in Ōpōtiki and Tauranga, reaching over 3700 youth weekly.