A Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on Domain Road. Photo / Alex Cairns
A Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on Domain Road. Photo / Alex Cairns
The level of abuse against staff at a Pāpāmoa medical centre has reached “an all-time high” amid an “enormous” workforce shortage and high demand for GP services.
It comes as a Bay of Plenty GP says the doctors are skipping meal breaks, working longer shifts, and intheir evenings and weekends to keep up with the demand.
And about 10 per cent of GP practices in the Western Bay are reporting appointment waiting times longer than 10 business days.
Pāpāmoa clinic says abuse a reflection of a ‘struggling’ health system
Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centres partner Pamela Sheahan said the level of abuse targeted at its clinical and administrative staff had reached “an all-time high” which reflected a “struggling” health system.
Sheahan said it had been experiencing “significant” workplace staff shortages - similar to many other practices in New Zealand.
In her view, this was due to “chronic” under-resourcing for GP training and “significantly reduced net immigration” of skilled GPs, nursing and pharmacy colleagues.
A Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on Domain Road. Photo / Alex Cairns
“We have seen huge pressures placed upon our ability to see patients in what we would consider a timely fashion and this is not something that we have seen before.”
Pankras said she had lobbied for funding for children aged under 14 with the PHO and Te Whatu Ora “for a long period of time”.
The PHO recently announced it and Te Whatu Ora would co-fund consultations for children at Tauranga’s Second Avenue Accident and Healthcare after the clinic increased its consultation fees for children in October, claiming a lack of Te Whatu Ora funding meant this was necessary to stay “financially sustainable”.
On the funding agreement, Pankras said: “We have been left out”.
Western Bay of Plenty PHO responds
In response, a Western Bay of Plenty PHO spokeswoman said the arrangement with Second Avenue was to co-fund an interim solution “to increase after-hours service options to the community”.
This would relieve pressure on general practices and the public hospital system until outcomes from the national urgent care review were implemented next year.
The spokeswoman said the PHO contracted Second Avenue to meet its after-hour obligations as per an agreement with Te Whatu Ora. The clinic did not receive any capitation or direct funding subsidies from Te Whatu Ora and operated on a solely commercial basis.
The spokeswoman said Tara Road Medical Centre operated as a general practice and was a member of Western Bay of Plenty Primary Care Providers Incorporated.
The enrolled population determined the funding allocated to such practices, she said.
She said Tara Road Medical Centre was entitled to receive funding for all adults and children enrolled, irrespective of whether the appointment was a walk-in or not.
“General practices are under no obligation to provide a walk-in clinic, particularly for casual patients, who may be enrolled with another medical centre or not enrolled at all.
“The decision to operate an acute walk-in clinic rests with the general practice, which must ensure it has adequate staffing capacity to efficiently manage the service.”
GPs skip meal breaks, working evenings and weekends to keep up with demand
A Bay of Plenty GP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said GPs would skip meal breaks, start early, finish late, and work on their evenings and weekends, but only get paid for an eight-hour day.
The GP said they worked on weekends “just to feel like we are not drowning by Monday morning”.
“We need extra funding to be able to start getting some paid protected paperwork time to make the job doable.”
The GP said the 15-minute model for a GP appointment was “not fit for purpose” anymore.
“It’s harder to do our job more than ever ... The population is getting older, more medically complex. There is more stress, depression and anxiety than ever. This is hard to manage in 15 minutes.”
Te Whatu Ora responds
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand workforce planning and development director John Snook said it knew workforce pressures were impacting access, which was why it was “investing significantly” to increase the number of general practitioner and nurse practitioner training placements.
The agency was working with the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners to strengthen the GP training pathway, including increasing the number of GPs trained annually to 300 by 2026 with the highest number to date starting training in 2024, Snook said.
“Te Whatu Ora is also working with the primary care sector to advance new models of care through initiatives such as the comprehensive primary and community care teams to broaden the available workforce.”
Western Bay GPs seeing ‘high demand’ for services
A Western Bay of Plenty PHO spokeswoman said about 10 per cent of GP practices in the Western Bay were reporting appointment waits longer than 10 business days.
The average wait for the majority of practices was between one and five business days.
The main reasons for increased times were “high demand” for services and workforce capacity challenges, particularly staff absence due to illness.
The spokeswoman said it was committed to reducing appointment waiting times. It partnered with Practice Plus which offers same-day virtual clinician appointments after hours, on weekends and public holidays.
The PHO helps plan, fund and co-ordinate healthcare alongside professionals and receives funding to provide these services.
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.
