Working until 10pm

An Invercargill medical centre director says his doctors are so busy seeing patients during the day it’s not unusual for them to work until 10pm as they go through test results and investigations.

Waihopai Health Services director Dr Sier Vermunt is one of the GPs nationwide who have begun issuing Section 14 Notifications to the Government.

This is a formal, legal step under their contracted provider agreements with Primary Health Organisations telling funders they’ve identified a risk that will prevent them from meeting their contract obligations. In this case, it’s a lack of funding and staff.

Dr Vermunt said it was ‘‘incredibly frustrating’’ for GPs who could be helping more patients and delivering better outcomes with more funding and staff.

His doctors were so busy seeing patients during the day, it was not unusual for them to work until 10pm going through test results and investigations and completing administrative work, he said.

‘‘Patients have no idea they’re doing this. The health service relies on the goodwill of doctors and that goodwill is running out.’’

GPs are dealing with more high needs patients and more responsibilities, but with not enough funding to hire the staff and match DHB wages.

While services would not disappear, they would be limited, he said.

General Practice Owners Association (GenPro) chief executive Philip Grant said: ‘‘Our members are telling us that the combination of historic underfunding, the real-terms funding cut imposed by the government for July 1 and the workforce crisis are causing . . .very significant risk.’’

The Government is offering a funding increase of 3%, against inflation of 6.9%, while practices are trying to cover pay gaps of 5.4% to attract and retain staff, GenPro reports.

Minister of Health Andrew Little said he did not think this accurately reflected elements of the funding agreement – like more funding for complex, high needs patients.

The agreement had not yet been finalised with Health New Zealand, he said.

Little noted that Government had set $4 million aside for GPs in rural areas, along with $10 million to increase GP registrar numbers.

The Section 14 Notifications were being issued in relation to funding frustrations rather than an imminent danger to patients, he said.

The Ministry of Health was unable to say how many general practices had issued Section 14 Notifications to date, but a spokesperson said the situation was being managed by Primary Health Organisations and District Health Boards.