Doubtless Bay loses sole GP

Doubtless Bay's sole resident GP, Dr Neil Benson, closed his Coopers Beach practice yesterday.


He said he took the decision after being unable to reach agreement through the local Primary Health Organisation (PHO) to have Kaitaia doctors continue to offer a weekend and after hours service to his patients.

Dr Benson had practised in Coopers Beach for more than six years, servicing the 7000 population at Doubtless Bay. He had 2200 patients on his books.

Now his former patients will either have to register with Kaitaia doctors 40km, or 30 minutes' drive away, or wait and see if the Tai Tokerau PHO can attract another resident GP to fill the gap left by Dr Benson's departure.

A Kaitaia GP, Dr Cornelius van Dorp, and a nurse have been brought in to fill the gap until the end of this month. Dr van Dorp, a former Doubtless Bay GP, is clinical director of Kaitaia health provider Te Hau Ora o Te Hiku o Te Ika.

PHO general manager Rose Lightfoot said yesterday there was a big population to serve in the area and plenty of room for a resident practice.

Dr Benson, a Canadian with a wife and four children aged 12 to 17, made a substantial investment in building up his medical centre, recently upgrading a relocated building for a surgery, two consulting rooms, an examination room, a nurse facility and a waiting room.

An agreement he had with Kaitaia doctors to provide after-hours and weekend cover for his patients, which Dr Benson paid for himself, expired in March.

He said the arrangement became "undoable" after the PHO gave him no support and effectively "killed" his practice by leaving him to provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week coverage.

He said that the Northland District Health Board and the PHO wanted to centralise GP activities in Kaitaia's "super clinic". 

"It's a anti-competitive move to kill off this practice," Dr Benson said.

A schoolgirl was this week rushed to his surgery with anaphylactic shock (severe allergic reaction) after a bee sting and could very easily have died if she had had to be taken to Kaitaia, he said. 

He was willing to keep his surgery open for use as a medical facility if that was required as part of a solution for continued resident GP cover, but would not be the solution himself. 

Ms Lightfoot said issues of after-hours cover were a challenge for every rural GP.

"It's working well in Kaitaia but it doesn't work now with Dr Benson." 

When the need came to renegotiate that agreement "there was an unwillingness to compromise", she said.

The agreement had to be acceptable to both sides but Dr Benson had declined to sign.

She denied there was any plan to centralise GP services in Kaitaia.

PHOs were designed to provide local communities with co-ordinated and comprehensive primary health services.

"What's happening in Kaitaia is not being driven by the PHO and it's not related to Doubtless Bay services."

Meanwhile the PHO has established a free shuttle service to run patients from Coopers Beach into GP practices in Kaitaia on weekdays.