Urgent care clinic for Blenheim ‘super health hub’?

A daytime urgent care centre and new GP practice are on the cards as the Marlborough Primary Health Organisation looks at ways to increase access to primary care.

Chief executive Beth Tester said a business case for the two proposals would be put forward at the Marlborough Primary Health Organisation’s next board meeting in August.

The business case would address the most financially and clinically sustainable way of providing an urgent care centre and new general practice.

The proposed urgent care centre and new general practice could possibly be located on the same site, Tester said.

Tester said general practices were in agreement that changes were needed to increase access to GPs in Marlborough, but the form the changes would take were still being confirmed.

Tester said people who were new to the region were having difficulties enrolling with a general practice, while it was hard for existing patients to change practices if they wanted to.

The only general practice that was taking new patients in Marlborough was the Picton Medical Centre, which only accepted patients living in Picton.

A daytime urgent care centre would provide a similar level of care to that provided by the Marlborough Urgent GP After Hours Service, but it would be open between the hours of 8am and 6pm on weekdays.

Tester said an urgent care cen- tre would ease pressure on the emergency department and on general practices tasked with treating visitors to the region who were not enrolled with a Marlborough doctor.

At present people who were not enrolled with a general practice were directed to one of five general practices who were on an acute care roster.

As part of separate discussions, the Marlborough Primary Health Organisation was investigating the possibility of an existing general practice moving to the Marlborough Community Health Hub.

The move would allow the practice to take on more patients, Tester said. She would not confirm which practice was considering the shift.

Tester had approached Marlborough general practices to check if they were able to take on more patients, but there were no practices in the region that had plans to boost their capacity in the short to medium term.

Data from the 2013 Census suggested there were between 500 and 600 people not enrolled with a practice in Marlborough, but Tester said migration to Marlborough since the information was collected meant the true figure could be up to 1600 residents.

A predicted increase in the number of seasonal workers coming to Marlborough was expected to increase demand on the region’s general practices, she said.

People who were not enrolled with a doctor were often the most vulnerable residents in a community, Tester said.