Six staff at the Pahīatua Medical Centre resigned yesterday, amid growing concern around extreme workloads and patient safety.
By Anya Fielding of RNZ
Almost 5000 patients depend on the clinic in the Tararua district.
But over the past two years, 81 staff have resigned from the Tararua Health Group, alleging unsafe workloads and dangerously long wait times for appointments and tests.
Registered nurse Mark Emmerson resigned along with five of his colleagues.
He told Checkpoint he was "sick" at the decision, but also "relieved" the matter had come to the nation's attention.
"As nurses, we try. We will run ourselves ragged until to get the job done. But it's certainly not safe for the patients. It's not safe for the staff psychologically."
He said the clinic was a "pressure cooker" as there were limited clinicians.
"We have a nurse practitioner that works for us four days a week. We've got a nurse prescriber that is full-time, but she's leaving in two weeks."
He said a lot of experience had left Pahīatua Medical centre today: a phlebotomist of 15 years, an administrator of 21 years, three registered nurses including himself, and a nurse practitioner.
He said the clinic would "certainly not" function without them.
He said an acute clinic had been set up a few months ago, but patients were being seen there when it was not appropriate.
"We're getting ACC, we're getting working income renewals and all of that sort of thing just can't be done in an acute setting."
He stressed that the staff were not leaving the community behind.
"We have put out there that we are willing to work with other providers who recognise the importance of our community, recognise the importance of our staff and are willing to work with us towards providing essential primary health care in the area."
Tony Wai — chief executive of the Primary Health Organisation, which managed the clinic's contract — responded that he felt concerns could be addressed with a plan, but he was not sure what that plan would look like.
However, health advocacy group Patient Voice Aotearoa called for a review into every patient who had a screening test through Tararua Health Group.
Co-founder and spokesperson Malcolm Mulholland said the group serviced 9500 patients in the wider area.
He told Checkpoint a review was important to understand patients' status as a delayed cancer diagnosis resulted in negative outcomes for patients.
He said the health minister and Health NZ were responsible.
"Ultimately it's up to the minister and Health New Zealand to intervene and say 'enough is enough; we're pulling the contract and we're going back to the community to see what best meets their needs'."
Mulholland said other regions were facing similar problems, citing Kirikiri as an example of where there might not be a GP within a couple of years.
In order to retain GPs in rural areas, he argued that Health NZ should hire practitioners directly.
"There's no middleman, there's no PHO, there's no business, there's no practice."
He said the approach would hand doctors more freedom as well.
Patient Voice Aotearoa and Kaitiaki Hauora have organised public meetings in Pahiatua, Woodville and Dannevirke from Tuesday, September 22 to discuss Tararua Health Group.
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