Patea medical centre. Photo/ Google
Patea has been left without a doctor after the town lost its only GP a week ago.
While the Patea Medical Trust desperately searches for a replacement, people are now having to travel 20 minutes to Hawera or 50 minutes to Whanganui for treatment.
Trust board member Brett Honeyfield told the Chronicle the lack of medical cover in the small South Taranaki town was the worst it has been since the trust bought the Lincoln Street medical centre in 1997.
Mr Honeyfield said the problem now facing Patea was the flow-on effect from the Government stopping funding for general practitioners' training.
"The GPs are just not there ... recruitment has been tough for years," he said.
"Doctors would rather live in one of the main city centres and work four days a week."
For the past three years, the town medical centre has been reliant on temporary locums, usually from overseas. Mr Honeyfield said they were employed through an agency which takes a 20 per cent cut.
"And usually they will stay for a few months which is really tough on patients because there is not that consistency of care.
"It can be really difficult for them because one doctor might have one plan and then the patient gets a new doctor and they have a different plan."
Yesterday, Whanganui electorate Labour candidate Steph Lewis hosted a meeting between the trust and members of the community.
Ms Lewis said several elderly people and young families in Patea were not able drive to see a doctor in a neighbouring town.
"In any case, Waverley only has a GP who travels from Te Wai Puna in Whanganui to Waverley three mornings a week.
"It's not enough for a community of 2000 people to only have a part-time doctor."
Mr Honeyfield remains hopeful of a temprary fix.
"We assured the community we are doing everything we can to find another GP, and people seemed to walk out of the meeting satisfied."
He said the trust had another potential locum GP lined up in September - but, again, that will be for only a few months.
"They are a couple from England, and he has practised in New Zealand before so doesn't need extra training which is good.
"But it would only be temporary while they are visiting New Zealand."
The loss of Patea's only doctor - who finished up last Monday - has put pressure on other
medical centres.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who runs the Ngati Ruanui Healthcare centre in Hawera, 30 kilometres away, was reported as saying that people from Patea were "queuing out the door".
Meanwhile, the president of Royal New Zealand School of General Practitioners, Tim Malloy, has spoken out about New Zealand's doctor shortage.
He said Taranaki was the region struggling the most, with the equivalent of 54 full-time GPs per 100,000 people. That compared with a national average of 74 GPs per 100,000 people.
Dr Malloy said losing a doctor in a small, isolated, regional place rocked a township and was real cause for concern.
And he warned there was no quick fix.
He said it took a minimum of 11 years training to become a GP and even longer to become a sole charge rural doctor.
Dr Malloy said training processes had to improve, and he suggested student doctors needed to come from rural communities and also train in those areas.