Vulnerable cop it in ‘broken’ system

A Horowhenua doctor says the region’s healthcare system is failing those who need it most.

There are no medical clinics in Levin taking patients, with Foxton’s Te Waiora Community Health Services and the taki Medical Centre as the only options in the district.

Patients then face another waiting list once enrolled before securing an appointment.

Horowhenua Youth One Stop

Shop general practitioner Glenn Colquhoun said he was always running into trouble squeezing extra appointments in, because there was nowhere else for patients to go.

The clinic was not a fulltime GP service but young people treated it as if it was.

‘‘They just think you are my doctor, so you are my doctor,’’ he said.

It was a free youth service, open three days a week, that serviced about 600 young people, a lot of which had complex needs.

Its patients were unable to access the service after they turned 24 years old but Colquhoun said many of them could not get in anywhere else.

Horowhenua Community Practice, Masonic Medical Centre, Queen Street Surgery and Tararua Medical Centre all had closed patient books.

‘‘It puts so much pressure on our services. At some point we just have to turn people away,’’ he said.

‘‘This is my 10th year here and as long as I have been here, there has been a struggle for young people to be seen anywhere else.’’

Colquhoun faced the wrath of the broken system himself and had shifted from a doctor in Foxton to one out of the region in Waikanae two years ago due to an eight-week wait for an appointment.

‘‘It is just a broken system. It is not a joined-up system and works by luck and who you know far too often.’’

He said it was like no-one was in charge and doctors were endlessly fighting to empty the waiting rooms.

‘‘The model of seeing people every 15 minutes is flawed, we are fighting an endless battle. The people are really, really poorly serviced. And the vulnerable cop it every time.’’

Colquhoun said doctors were forced to restrict patients to one problem, and restrained themselves from asking questions that required a lengthy answer.

Rae Mcewen travels from Levin to Palmerston North to see a doctor because no local clinics would take her. She moved to Horowhenua 11 years ago and wanted to change to a local doctor to avoid unnecessary travel.

‘‘There was nobody that could take us and it has got worse. It was horrendous. I think I would still be waiting.’’

Even if she found a clinic that was taking enrolments, she would see a different doctor every time.

‘‘We moved from Palmerston North and stuck with our doctor, and I am quite pleased we did.

‘‘He has got our history and we see the same doctor or his partner every time.’’

Mcewen said it was ‘‘souldestroying’’ being in a clinic so busy that you never saw the same doctor, forcing you to explain your situation over and over.

Horowhenua Greypower president Terry Hemmingsen said it was a six-week wait to get on a patient list, before even trying to book an appointment.

‘‘It is not good.

‘‘If you are ill, you have to go through the emergency services.’’

A Queen Street Surgery practice manager, who did not want to be named, said it had three fulltime doctors and one part-time.

It hired a locum while waiting for a new doctor to complete isolation at the end of March, to arrive in April.

It serviced just over 5000 patients and the longest waiting time was a week.

She said it had on-the-day slots for those seeking an urgent appointment, as well as triage appointments.

‘‘You don’t get sick to suit the waiting times at a doctor surgery.’’