Low-cost GP visits on way for struggling families

Low-income families in the northern Bay of Islands will soon have low-cost doctor's visits, with a Kaikohe-based medical centre set to open a satellite clinic at Waipapa.

The move comes after concerns from Maori organisations that families in places like Te Tii and Takou Bay are not getting medical treatment because they can't afford to see a doctor in Kerikeri.

Kerikeri is one of only a few places in Northland where patients don't get the maximum government subsidy when seeing a GP, so they pay close to $30 a visit instead of the $17 charged in places like Kaikohe.

Although geared for low-income patients, anyone will be able to enrol at Broadway Health Waipapa once it opens this week.

Broadway Health practice manager Jessie Hoskins said groups such as Te Runanga o Ngati Rehia had approached the clinic with concerns that children in places like Takou Bay and Te Tii, and Maori living in rural areas but working in Kerikeri, weren't accessing health care.

There were also many retirees in Kerikeri on fixed incomes who were suffering in the current economic climate, she said.

Manager Nick Heywood did not expect an exodus from existing medical centres in Kerikeri because Broadway Health was targeting patients who now had no GP at all.

"It's not as simple as saying we're going to undercut and people will leave. People have relationships with their doctor like they have relationships with their hairdresser - you don't just jump ship because there's someone cheaper down the road," he said.

Clinical director Shane Cross said a few issues had to be ironed out with Kerikeri's existing medical centres. "We're starting a new business on their territory, so their nervousness is understandable." But they were now generally supportive, he said.

The Waipapa clinic will charge the same as Kaikohe, $17 for an adult GP visit, even though it will not be immediately eligible for the maximum government subsidy. To get that, the clinic will have to prove its patients fit the bill in terms of income, ethnicity, age and family size.

Dr Cross said some of Broadway Health's patients lived in Kaikohe but worked in Kerikeri. He wanted them to be able to visit either clinic and pay the same fee.

Broadway Health has eight full-time-equivalent nurses and seven GPs in Kaikohe. The Waipapa satellite will start with one GP, one nurse and one receptionist. A pharmacy is due to open shortly and other health services, such as physiotherapy, may be offered in future.

The Kaikohe and Waipapa clinics will keep the same weekday hours, but only Kaikohe will open on Saturday.

The doors at Broadway Health Waipapa, on Klinac Lane are due to open on Wednesday.