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\nRural funding for general practices in W\u0101naka will be cut by 70 percent if the proposal goes ahead. File photo.
\nPhoto: 123RF\n<\/p>\n
A W\u0101naka GP fears the community could lose its after-hours service within weeks, if rural funding is cut.<\/p>\n
A proposed change to primary care funding could result in W\u0101naka being reclassified as a first-tier rural area due to its increased population.<\/p>\n
Rural funding for general practices in the town will be cut by 70 percent if the proposal goes ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n The proposal would change how rural funding was distributed with some practices becoming eligible for extra funding after being reclassified as rural while others would miss out after shifting to a different status.<\/p>\n Aspiring Medical Centre director Dr Fiona MacLean said it could cost W\u0101naka its after-hours service and the town did not have a hospital.<\/p>\n But Health New Zealand said it did not expect services to be affected as rural practices would receive transitional funding.<\/p>\n That funding was more than what was initially budgeted for the upcoming financial year and would continue for four years.<\/p>\n Aspiring Medical Centre general manager Caroline Stark said funding across the three W\u0101naka practices would be cut by more than $750,000 per year.<\/p>\n Transitional funding would effectively be frozen at the coming financial year’s levels and would not take into account the growing patient enrolments or the cost pressure practices faced, including increasing overheads and wages, Stark said.<\/p>\n W\u0101naka’s practices would then be significantly worse off after the four-year transition as there were no plans for further support, she said.<\/p>\n Dr MacLean said W\u0101naka relied on rural funding to provide an after-hours service.<\/p>\n “We don’t have access to any funded urgent care or emergency department. Our nearest emergency department is over an hour away in Queenstown over a mountain range, so we are it,” she said.<\/p>\n “We just can’t see how we’d be able to carry on with after-hours.”<\/p>\n Rural funding was also used for staffing during regular hours to cover acute and emergency cases that would usually go to an emergency department, she said.<\/p>\n “We see some pretty hairy cases. Last week we had a very sick child with asthma and sepsis that required stabilisation with lots of medications while we waited for a helicopter transfer,” she said.<\/p>\n “The thought that we’re not able to provide that service is really frightening.”<\/p>\n W\u0101naka should not be reclassified as it did not take into account the distance to the hospital, just that the town had a bigger population, Dr McLean said.<\/p>\n The proposal would put W\u0101naka in the same category as Ashburton, where there is a hospital with a 24-hour unit urgent care.<\/p>\n MacLean said she first heard about the change on Friday and general practices across the motu had to vote on the changes by Thursday.<\/p>\n The proposed changes needed support from 75 percent of practices nationally to proceed.<\/p>\n If passed, McLean believed W\u0101naka after-hours service would be cut or significantly reduced from July.<\/p>\n Health Action W\u0101naka chair Monique Mayze said it was concerning local practices would not have enough funding to deliver the services the community relied on.<\/p>\n “Our primary health providers in W\u0101naka function like a default ED (emergency department),” she said.<\/p>\n “They have to monitor and stabilise patients with acute symptoms, prepare patients for transfer to hospital and that saves hospital admissions but it also comes at a cost and they really do have to be funded to deliver those services given our geographical isolation.”<\/p>\n She also feared how soon the changes would come into effect.<\/p>\n “We’re talking a matter of weeks. We could be without that vital service for our people who have acute symptoms, for example, after-hours. So it would be catastrophic for our community,” Mayze said.<\/p>\n W\u0101naka should be exempt from the reclassification given its isolation and access to hospital care, she said.<\/p>\n Health New Zealand has been engaging with the primary sector over proposed funding changes.<\/p>\n Community and mental health acting funding director Martin Hefford said the package included additional funding of more than $120 million per year.<\/p>\n That included a proposal for a nationwide rural funding formula to determine how that funding was distributed.<\/p>\n The changes included a 3.16 percent increase in rural funding, which cost $0.9 million along with $26.8 million in additional funding for the transitional support package.<\/p>\n All practices currently receiving rural funding would continue to get it from July under the proposal along with 39 newly eligible practices, he said.<\/p>\n “Rural practices impacted by changes will receive transitional funding with the proposed approach meaning every practice receives an increase in total funding – being capitation plus rural funding,” he said.<\/p>\n “Transitional funding will continue for four years. Therefore we expect no reductions in services.”<\/p>\n Every practice would receive increased funding of at least four percent from July.<\/p>\n “Under the proposal no practice would lose funding in the coming year,” Hefford said.<\/p>\n Health New Zealand was working to improve access to urgent and after-hours care through the rollout of a new framework, but he said changes to rural funding would not impact funding for urgent care services.<\/p>\n “The proposed change to rural funding allocation will not proceed unless it is supported by primary care providers.”<\/p>\n The proposals were subject to feedback from the sector.<\/p>\n “In addition, last month Health NZ confirmed that planning is underway to expand locally delivered healthcare services for people living in W\u0101naka, Cromwell, Queenstown, and across the wider Otago Central Lakes area,” Hefford said.<\/p>\n “The government confirmed additional investment in capital and operating funding from 2027\/28 to implement the plan.”<\/p>\n