Taupō's health practices ‘understaffed, overworked’

General practices in Taupō are stretched to the limit with growing patient lists and difficulty recruiting doctors. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

GP practices across the Taupō District are thinking outside the square to cater for patients, with one surgery having no permanent doctors at all.

In Tūrangi, patients at Pihanga Health are waiting five to seven working days to see their GP.

For an appointment at Taupō Health Centre, that wait is typically 10 days.

At Lake Surgery in Taupō, callers are most likely to be offered a phone or virtual consultation, because the practice has no permanent GPs.

Variations in staffing levels and delays in seeing a GP are playing out in waiting rooms across New Zealand.

Practices spoken to by the Taupō & Tūrangi Herald say a variety of factors are to blame, with recruitment difficulties and rising patient numbers at the top of the list.

The situation is particularly keenly felt at Lake Surgery on Tongariro St, after the departure of the only two permanent general practitioners this year.

Lake Surgery’s practice manager Mark Taylor said they were relying on locums and digital consultations to fill the gaps.

He stressed that urgent cases were prioritised and seen by a GP within a day or two. Others who needed face-to-face appointments were getting them within about a week.

The team’s nurses also continued to see as many patients as possible, he said.

“Admittedly, it’s a bit of a jigsaw at the moment.

“On the whole, we’ve been like this for maybe three months. We’ve continued to deliver a service, it just looks a bit different.”

The pressure was set to ease in August, with two new GPs beginning at the practice - one initially on a short-term contract, and the other permanent.

Nationally, there has been a severe shortage of GPs for some time, with a 2021 Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners report describing “a workforce in crisis”.

It also cited the likelihood of the situation getting much worse over time, noting that half of current GPs were planning to retire within the next decade.

This has driven a need for practices to innovate and find new approaches to health care.

Dr Katrina Whittfield, a GP partner at Taupō Health Centre, said the surgery had adopted creative solutions alongside traditional recruitment strategies.

“We’ve been advertising for more GPs and nurse practitioners for about 18 months now.

“We’ve also expanded our ideas slightly - we’re looking at ways we can diversify.”

This included hiring Trudi Tutty, a clinical pharmacist who can see patients to prescribe and review medications.

Whittfield said the need to find new solutions has never been greater, with the existing workforce stretched to the limit.

“We’re overworked and exhausted after Covid.

“Doctors are all working longer hours and doing more work than they’re employed to do.”

The Health Centre has also enrolled in a programme for overseas doctors who need additional training to practise in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Taupō Medical Centre has produced a recruitment video in the hopes of attracting overseas doctors to Taupō.

TMC’s Dr Giles Turner said there was a need to think outside the box.

“Recruitment is very difficult, so putting together a video promoting Taupō and our medical centre was seen as going the extra mile to find interested clinicians.”

They also have two GPs from outside the area, who managed some of the practice’s virtual consultations, he said, citing the “significant demands on [the] primary health system since Covid”.