Meanwhile, an organisation that represents and trains GPs in New Zealand says while there is a shortage of GPs nationally, it is rare for a medical clinic to disenrol patients, and it will put pressure on other practices.
Hastings has 10 general practices (including Hauora Heretaunga), according to the Health Hawke’s Bay website.
One affected patient, who did not want to be named, said she received an email this month informing her that she was being disenrolled.
She said she had been at the same practice for many years.
“They’ve been really good, no issues getting an appointment within seven days, sometimes same day,” she said.
“I haven’t found a new GP, and I assume it’ll be extremely difficult with potentially 3000 people needing to find one at this time of year.”
She expected many people would rely on the Hawke’s Bay Hospital emergency department (ED), in Hastings, if they could not enrol at a new GP – herself included.
“I absolutely believe ED will get much worse,” she said, given that influx.
She said she would like to enrol at Totara Health in future, if possible, as it has affordable clinics (in Hastings and Flaxmere).
Totara Health has been contacted for comment about how many new patients it can potentially take on.
TToH has a project team working on the transition of 3000 patients to other GPs.
“We ask for whānau patience as we work through this, which is expected to take approximately two to three weeks,” a TToH spokeswoman said on Friday.
TToH chairman Mike Paku said earlier this month that the decision “has been made to protect the health and safety of our whānau, first and foremost”.
He called for urgent government support to sustain kaupapa Māori GP clinics.
Health NZ Central’s regional director planning, Geoff Gwyn, said kaupapa Māori primary care providers played a vital role in improving health outcomes for Māori communities.
He said service continuity planning was happening with the wider general practice network.
“This may include the viable transfer of enrolled patients to other practices with the capacity to care for them,” he said.
Royal NZ College of General Practitioners president Dr Luke Bradford said New Zealand had a lot of clinics not taking on new enrolments, because they could not recruit more staff.
He said that although there was a shortage of GPs, it was rare to disenrol patients.
“It’s not very common for practices to make the decision to disenrol patients, I’ve not heard of it before, but certainly there are clinics where they are struggling for staff.”
He said a sudden increase of 3000 patients in a regional city would “put pressure on other practices”.