Phone system set up for after-hours help
If you or your children become sick, or injured after hours, it can be hard to know what to do. Is it serious enough for the hospital emergency department? How long will the wait be? Should you go to the GP — and if so, who’s on duty and how much will it cost? Or should you just hang in there until the next working day?
Taupo¯ doctors have realised for some time that there’s local confusion about whether a GP is on duty after hours and weekends, and if so, who it is. Meanwhile, at Taupo¯ Hospital, they’re trying to keep the emergency department free for emergencies.
Taupo¯ GP Glen Davies says over recent years there’s been a change in the pattern of use at the hospital emergency department and the local GPs’ clinics.
He says one reason the GPs were seeing fewer people and the emergency department more, was that often people did not realise that there is a GP on duty in Taupo¯, every weekday from 8am to 10pm and on Saturday and Sundays from 8am until 10pm and children under 13 (under 14 from December 1) are free.
Taupo¯ Hospital clinical lead Mariska Lambert says at the hospital staff are noticing more people arriving with non-urgent problems and when asked, often they were not aware that there was a GP available after hours, were worried about the cost, or felt that the hospital doctors were somehow more qualified or knowledgeable.
To try to help people get the right medical attention more quickly, the GPs practices and Taupo¯ Hospital have come up with an after-hours phone system where specialist triage nurses will assess each person’s situation and advise them on the best place to be treated. As always, if it is an emergency, dial 111 for an ambulance.
Otherwise, people should call their usual GP practice and the call will be transferred to Home Care Medical. The nurses will ask for information and then advise whether the problem should be dealt with at the emergency department or would be better seen by a GP, and which one is on duty.
The two doctors say people often assume that the emergency department doctors are somehow ‘better’ than GPs, but the reality is that although they are experts in managing emergencies, it is the GPs who are better with general practice conditions such as illnesses and uncomplicated infections.
“A child with a sore ear that waits for several hours in the emergency department could have been seen by the GP in 10 minutes — and both places are free,” Dr Davies says. “It’s the right people to the right place. For instance, don’t just go to the hospital because you think you need an x-ray — a GP can still refer you for an x-ray, or splint it and do the x-ray the next day.
“What we want is the doctors to be working in the area that they are most qualified to work in so we want the emergency doctors to be managing emergencies like heart attacks and haemorrhages and we want the GPs to be managing strep throats, rashes and ear infections.”
Dr Davies says the people who are best placed to decide on the right place to go are the specialist nurses at Home Care Medical, and people should not hesitate to call their GP practice’s number after hours for advice.
When it comes to after hours fees, Dr Davies says most weekend GP visits tend to be children’s illnesses, or sports injuries. Children under 13 are free (that rises to children under 14 from December 1) and ACC-related visits are charged at subsidised rates. However, adults do pay after-hours charges. Dr Davies says people should talk to Home Care Medical to see whether the nurse thinks they can wait to see the doctor on a week day.
Dr Lambert says in an effort to keep the emergency department free for emergencies, people need to know that if they turn up at the hospital emergency department with a less-serious issue, they may be referred back to their GP to be seen.
Dr Davies says even during weekdays, people will always be seen at GPs’ practices, even if their usual doctor is fully booked. “You can always be seen through the triage nurse or the triage doctor during normal working hours.”