A GP taking part in the Counties Manukau after-hours scheme to reduce pressure on hospitals says clinics won't be able to do extended hours long term.
Photo: Unsplash / Hush Naidoo Jade
Extra payments to GPs in the Counties Manukau area went ahead over the Matariki weekend after being trialled for clinics in East and South Auckland the weekend before.
Counties Manukau DHB was paying up to $350 per patient to help ease pressure on Middlemore Hospital's emergency department.
Capital and Coast and Southern district health boards, which are also under pressure, have introduced similar measures.
Papatoetoe Family Doctors, part of the Health Hub in Papatoetoe, was open Friday and Saturday of the Matariki weekend, but couldn't manage Sunday.
GP Dr Karl Cole said many who turned up at the Papatoetoe clinic had tested negative to Covid-19 but were "really quite sick" with flu.
"There's a lot of influenza out there - people who look well but are fairly sick, got a high pulse, and are trying to cope with life and another virus going around."
More than half the patients who turned up weren't aware the appointments were free.
"They found us though Healthline, got ways to get to us and were expecting to pay and it was quite a nice surprise for them.
"I mentioned to them that this has all been paid for them this weekend as a special deal - they all thought it was a Matariki special deal."
"There's a lot of influenza out there" - Dr Karl Cole
Only a third of the GP clinics in East and South Auckland that signed up for the programme were open on Sunday. Of the 45 clinics listed on the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre website, 14 were open, and half of those were closed before 5pm.
"We spread the weekend, with the five doctors we have full-time equivalent and the three nurses, as much as we could but we just couldn't do Sunday, Cole said.
"It's just too hard with people's families and short notice and having to work all week.
Many GPs usually spent some hours on a Sunday doing administration, urgent referrals or getting ready for the week ahead.
"We certainly can't carry on being ... 16 hours open like they wanted us to in the weekends plus have a full work week we're really full just doing the Monday to Friday plus we're do Saturday mornings. Staff are so short and demand is going up."
"We'd have to, somehow, magic up some more workforce or work on ways that we could prioritise and have to - I hate the word, never had to do this in primary care before or never thought we would - waitlist somehow people to manage the demand."
Changes had been brought in to the scheme to reduce the payment for seeing patients during the day, he said, and patients had to be seen in person not on a telehealth or virtual consultation.