Medical centre pain in fewer ACC claims

Healthcare providers around the Queenstown Lakes district are hunkering down as they take a financial hit from a drop in adventure-related accidents.

The Queenstown Medical Centre and the Wa¯ naka Medical Centre are among those that have reduced staff hours as they grapple with a drop in patient numbers and income.

Wa¯ naka Medical Centre general manager Michael James said the absence of international visitors and the drop in domestic visitors presenting to medical centres, as well as a decline in adventure-related accidents, was hitting health providers hard.

‘‘People are not out there doing adventure things. We have had a significant decrease in income, whether it’s accident related or otherwise.’’

ACC figures for the district show there were 170 claims for April 2020 compared with 690 for April 2019. In May there were 345 claims compared with 746 in the previous May.

James said peak tourist numbers were in winter and summer in Wa¯ naka, so the full impact of any drop in visitor numbers would be felt then.

‘‘We are working through how we can continue to provide health services to our community while still remaining a viable business in a new, but difficult to predict, operating environment.’’

Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners president Dr Samantha Murton said many practices were at ‘‘breaking point’’.

ACC revenue had dropped when adventure tourism came to a halt during the Covid-19 alert level restrictions, she said.

‘‘For general practices it could be 10 [per cent] to 20 per cent of total income but that would be higher in rural areas.

‘‘It makes a big difference to the workforce they require ... They will have to hunker down.’’

Recovery would be ‘‘tricky’’, because of the way medical funding was structured, she said. ‘‘There is little way of making up that loss.’’

Ashley Light, of the Queenstown Medical Centre, said there had been no redundancies at the practice, but all staff hours had been reduced by 20 per cent.

Lakes District Hospital is also losing income with fewer patients.

Debi Lawry, the Southern District Health Board’s associate general manager for Lakes District Hospital and rural health, said there was a 15 per cent drop in numbers through the emergency department last month.