Stratford doctor drought may soon be over

A GP drought in Stratford appears to have been broken, with the appointment of two new GPs at the Avon Medical Care Centre.
Owner of the centre, Dr Brian Wood, has mostly been on his own since February, with a huge work load assisted only by short term locums.
The loss of two GPs early in the year threw the situation into crisis in Stratford, compounded by two replacements having to leave due to illness.
Dr Wood has managed to keep the practice running for over six months, servicing over 4000 patients, but there is still a number of people in Stratford who are not enrolled with a regular GP.
Dr Wood said the new GPs will make a big difference.
New owners
Dr Wood has now sold the practice and from this week Avon Medical Care Centre will be owned and run by Primary Health Care, a wholly owned non-profit subsidiary of Pinnacle Incorporated, itself a non-profit making organization with it's origin in Government initiated co-ordination structures for General Practice.
"As many in the community will be aware, it has proven difficult to retain long term doctors, and one of the advantages of the transfer of ownership will be that the responsibility for sustaining medical care at Avon will no longer be so dependent on one individual," he said.
Pinnacle has its main office in Hamilton and a smaller branch in New Plymouth.
Primary Health Care already owns other practices in the Midlands and has experience running community medical care. It is expected that the changes they will institute will mainly be in the background and will not be obvious to patients.
The familiar personnel at Avon will remain largely unchanged, and the two new US doctors, Kathryn Dalton and Roger Cox, are expected to arrive in September to join Dr Wood and practice registrar, Songita Rahman. Dr Dalton has a six month contract and Dr Cox is signing up for 12 months.
"Pinnacle Incorporated have been involved in their recruitment and this is an example of the sort of benefit a larger organization can bring to what is functionally a small business," said Dr Wood.
Once the new Stratford Health Centre is completed Avon will move to the new premises. This will involve further changes as Avon becomes part of a larger physical structure and enjoys the benefit of proximity to others involved in health at the community level.
"While it is likely that there will be some initial challenges related to the changes, it is anticipated that they will further increase the attractiveness of Stratford as a work option for all sorts of health personnel," said Dr Wood.
"Unfortunately, medical care provision, particularly in small rural and semi-rural towns in New Zealand, remains difficult to ensure.
"There are many initiatives underway at a national and regional level to try to improve staffing, but these will take time to produce much change.
"It is hoped that what is happening at Avon and the building of the new centre will contribute to increasing medical stability in Stratford," he added.