Mayors, GPs decry racial health cash

Waikato mayors are complaining and a Matamata doctor has quit, saying new funding from the Health Ministry is based unfairly on "racial factors".

Paul Noonan, who has worked in rural general practice for 21 years, will step down as principal at the Matamata Medical Centre in October.

He said a Government scheme to pay for primary healthcare directly by creating public health organisations (PHOs) was medically and morally unsound.

The system - which coincides with the phasing out of community service cards - gives designated areas more funding.

Doctors in those areas can offer cheaper health care, which means they can attract patients from neighbouring areas that are better off.

Critics say the focus should be on individual patients' needs rather than areas.

A spokesman for Health Minister Annette King said the new funding was fair.

Each PHO is made up of groups of primary healthcare providers.

Areas with many Maori and Pacific Islanders and poorer people attract more funding.

In a letter to the minister, Dr Noonan said the extra money was necessary but "unfortunately it is based on racial factors and rough demographics".

"I find this offensive and fundamentally flawed," he said.

The Matamata Medical Centre will join a PHO on October 1.

"To do better financially with Government funding we will now have to modify the race and demography of our patients," Dr Noonan said.

Some GPs were already aiming to enrol more Maori and Pacific Islanders at their practices.

"Strategic alliances and partnerships have been formed on the sole basis of gaining access to funding; many of these are bound to come unstuck and end in acrimony," Dr Noonan said.

On Wednesday, Hamilton Mayor David Braithwaite and district mayors from Waikato, Waipa, Otorohanga and Matamata-Piako decided the PHO system was unfair and agreed to tell Mrs King of their concerns.

Matamata-Piako Mayor Hugh Vercoe, who chaired the meeting, said the funding did not properly target those in most need.

"You could have a doctor move from Matamata and set up in Waharoa, where he is able to offer cheaper consultation fees to anybody regardless of their race or income," he said.

Last month, the Otorohanga Medical Centre lobbied the Government for more PHO funding after patients began driving 20km to Te Kuiti for subsidised GP visits.

Otorohanga won the funding, but Mr Vercoe said that could mean other GPs might suffer as their patients followed the funding.

Mrs King's spokesman said money was being directed first at people with highest need.

"That happens to be Maori and Pacific Islanders, and research shows that their life expectancy is slipping behind other groups."

- NZPA