Cunningham said wait times for GP appointments had been up to three to four weeks but had since reduced.
Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post on December 18, she said the next face-to-face appointment was on December 27.
Cunningham said the clinic had “a constant flow of people wanting to enrol”.
It was taking “a very limited amount of enrolments” to ensure its current patients’ access to medical care was not compromised, but continued to help those seeking enrolment, she said.
Cunningham said the clinic used Practice Plus to provide cover for doctors as needed. Practice Plus offered same-day virtual clinician appointments after hours, on weekends and on public holidays.
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 the 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.”
Rotorua GPs experiencing ‘extreme levels’ of stress and burnout
Rotorua Area Primary Health Services chief executive Kirsten Stone said Rotorua practices - similar to practices nationally - were facing “extreme workforce pressures” due to staff shortages and increased demand for services.
The organisation she represents is Rotorua’s Primary Health Organisation and a not-for-profit clinical network. It receives funding to provide primary healthcare.
Rotorua practices were delivering 32 per cent more consultations than before Covid-19, with a 13 per cent reduction in the number of GPs supporting the workload. “This impacts providers and community alike, with extreme levels of provider stress and burnout evident.”
Stone said the organisation understood the frustration caused by appointment delays, however, practices were doing “everything they possibly can” to support access to care.
Stone said most practices had phone triage services and patient portals so online requests and repeat prescriptions could be processed without needing to visit the practice.
Walk-in urgent care could be accessed at Lakes PrimeCare, which was free after hours for children under 14, Stone said.
Stone said the most recent National Patient Experience Survey results for Rotorua showed 19 per cent of patients experienced an occasion when they wanted healthcare from a GP or nurse but could not get it within the last 12 months.
Of those, 85 per cent said this was because the wait time was too long.
Stone said 28 per cent reported they could get a same-day or next-day appointment - 78 per cent said they did not mind waiting.
Eighty per cent said if they contacted the GP or nurse about something important, they could get an answer on the same day.
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.
