It's hoped a new initiative will help support rural health practices struggling with staff shortages.
File photo. Photo: 123RF
The New Zealand Rural General Practice Network with funding support from the Ministry of Health has launched the Tautoko Rural initiative.
It will help fill short-term staffing gaps in rural practices and hospitals due to Covid-19 illness and isolation requirements.
To source people available to support, the network has been granted access to the Ministry of Health's Covid-19 Hands Up Database, where people who are able to help have registered.
Network chief executive Grant Davidson said rural general practices and hospitals are at risk of closure or having to significantly reduce services if their staff need to isolate due to Covid-19.
"We surveyed rural practices and hospitals for their greatest concerns as Omicron circulates in the community, overwhelmingly, the message was that their community's health would be compromised if any of their staff went down sick.
"We believe this will provide some hope and support to practices with fatigued and stressed staff that have been up against it for long periods of time already."
Rural General Practice Network clinical director Jeremy Webber said some rural areas are already facing a surge of patients which is stretching resources.
"For a long time we've known about the workforce crisis in rural healthcare and covid is really brining that to the fore.
"The challenge we have is inequitable distribution - rural communities up in the far north are being overrun and those of us that are waiting for that surge to come through are really anticipating a real challenge for our workforce in the coming days and weeks."
Dr Webber said there has been an increase of cases presenting at Taupō Hospital where he works.
"We've certainly got cases coming through the emergency department, we're not having anybody admitted to Taupō Hospital at the moment but it's certainly starting to impact our workforce. So we've lost 20 percent of our doctor workforce due to positive cases.
"We're expecting things to get worse because all of the schools are flushed with Covid and most hospital staff have got young kids so it will get through the community."
Webber said locum services are really stretched so he hopes the new Tautoko Rural initiative improves the situation.
The Ministry of Health would not say how much it has given for the Tautoko Rural initiative citing commercial sensitivity.