‘Soul-destroying’ conditions

When politicians and public servants put their feet up this Christmas, Dr Tim Malloy will be near his phone, waiting to be called to a crisis.

The Wellsford GP has not had an undisturbed Christmas holiday in 15 years. ‘‘Our workload doubles or triples over the Christmas period. A crisis happens, I have got to come back . . . holiday time is not an option for many of us, particularly if we are involved in 24-hour care.’’

Malloy is chairperson of the GP association GenPro, which today launches a major campaign to spotlight the ‘‘soul-destroying’’ working conditions family doctors are facing, in an effort to spur better access to care.

The group, which represents more than 400 general practices across the country, is also releasing a report titled On The Brink, which outlines the urgent need to address pay parity for GP nurses and doctors, to beef up workforce numbers and to improve funding allocations for practices.

The call comes as Christchurch woman Helen Celia watched a staffer in an afterhours clinic resort to climbing on a table to ask anyone who did not need urgent care to consider leaving. Celia was in the ‘‘completely full’’ clinic with her 7-year-old son, Ethan, after he sliced his thumb open on a can of peaches.

While her boy was well looked after, Celia said the pair were there for five hours on a Monday night before staff could glue his wound back together.

‘‘About 8pm or 9pm one of the staff stood on the table and made an announcement – if you are not here for an emergency come and see me and we can look at whether you can go home straight away,’’ Celia said.

‘‘Staff were doing the best they could but the demand was completely outstripping supply.’’

Malloy said those desperate tactics were humiliating for doctors. ‘‘It is more than humiliating, it is soul-destroying and for some it is too much. That is why they are looking longingly at the

‘‘It is more than humiliating, it is souldestroying and for some it is too much.’’ Dr Tim Malloy GP association GenPro chairperson

$500,000 income in Queensland general practices . . . and frankly it is pretty hard to blame them for taking that perspective,’’ Malloy said.

‘‘None of us have gone through our training to provide less than satisfactory healthcare. All of us are struggling with the ethics and morality of it as well.’’

There were roughly 1000 GPs missing from family practice, Malloy said, ‘‘because of the lost generation through the 1990s and 2000s’’.

The number of doctors entering general practice falls woefully short – with just 15 extra GPs practising in June 2022 than the previous year, according to the latest figures from the Medical Council.

GenPro chief executive Philip Grant said provisional results from 180 surveyed clinics showed more than half were not enrolling new patients.

Access differed greatly on where a person lived. In the MidCentral region, for example, 90% of practices covered by Think Hauora had their books closed, with just two practices in Palmerston North and one in taki still taking patients.

In Tairāwhiti, Three Rivers Medical Centre is one that is still adding to its books of close to 20,000 patients, about half of whom are Māori.

General manager Michelle Te Kira (Ngāti Porou) said it was being forced to provide service to the most vulnerable populations with ‘‘significant underfunding’’.

Key recommendations

The On The Brink report calls for three key improvements – fair pay, workforce numbers and fair contracts for GP clinics. On pay, the report outlines the need for parity for nurses in general practice – who are paid on average $8000 a year less than hospital-based nurses, as well as fair treatment for medical graduates and removal of penalties for doctors who choose to become GPs.

The workforce recommendations ask for a boost in the number of registrars, removal of barriers for overseas-trained staff and more capacity and capability in the GP workforce.

Finally, the report calls for better funded GP services, full funding for new services, developments and demand, as well as greater investment in frontline services.

GenPro will be sending Health Minister Andrew Little the report today.