There's concern from some general practitioners the Government's funding reduction for Covid treatment will see some people not seeking the medical attention they need.
A free follow-up GP appointment for people recovering from Covid within six weeks of their infection and ongoing care for people at a higher risk of severe illness was introduced by the Government in December 2021, a Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said.
But from tomorrow, follow up appointments for people after Covid illness or after hospitalisation with Covid will be a cost for patients to pick up, unless they're in a higher-risk category such as disabled people, older people, or Māori for whom funded treatment will continue.
"Especially for patients that have been in hospital with Covid, it is critically important that there is integration back into their general practice and GP to manage their condition and we felt quite strongly that that should be a free visit after a hospital admission so that was disappointing," said Dr Bryan Betty, medical director for Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.
Auckland general practitioner Dr Sapna Samant agrees cost may be a barrier for some, and she's also concerned the illness will be more likely to go undetected at general practices with RAT tests only to be funded if the patient is high-risk and the result is positive.
"We are not going to do the RAT and that means we're going to miss out on a whole lot of perhaps potential complications," Dr Samant said.
National Public Health Service interim director of outbreak response Matt Hannant said there's a range of reasons now is the right time to cut back funding.
"Now that we've stepped into the new year, we're in summer, we've got low case numbers about under 1000 a day, we've been working on this since about November, this particular set of changes, so we think we're really well positioned to get that bedded in," he said.
Māori Health Authority chief medical officer Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen said it's also time to make a statement to general practices that other public health issues are priorities by reducing the focus on Covid-19.
"There's been a lot of work going on which is kind of low-value work and we need to shift primary care teams back to the work that needs to be done over the Covid time.
"I'm thinking about measles vaccinations so the childhood vaccination programme really needs attention and we've sent a signal by funding a whole lot of work that the Covid works more important, we need to change that signal and we're trying to be really upfront with everybody about that," Dr Mckree Jansen said.
Hannant said health services are now transitioning to a new business as usual approach with Covid-19 being treated like any other respiratory condition, except for vulnerable patients.
RAT test collection sites will be closed, except for sites in rural or low socio-economic areas, allowing more staff to be freed up to work on other public health programmes.
More pharmacies have come on board to be free RAT test collection sites.
Vaccination against severe illness from Covid-19 also remains free.
"We've got no plans to make any further changes and we'll be considering what we need to do post-winter in the coming months," Hannant said.
The remaining funded treatments for high-risk patients will last until the end of June.
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