{"id":583436,"date":"2026-08-28T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583436\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T22:46:11","slug":"whanganui-gp-appointments-prescriptions-rat-sales-swell-as-late-flu-surge-enters-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583436\/","title":{"rendered":"Whanganui GP appointments, prescriptions, RAT sales swell as late flu surge enters spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

An intermediate school student she treated had influenza A for nine days, she said.<\/p>\n

Healthcare staff and their children were also affected, swelling staff workload.<\/p>\n

There had \u201cprobably been a four- or fivefold increase\u201d in over-the-counter acute scripts, for the likes of antibiotics, compared to last month, Holmes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone\u2019s got a flu, they can\u2019t treat a virus with an antibiotic, but people can get complications, so you can end up with a chest infection, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s in direct correlation to all the respiratory illnesses that you\u2019re seeing affect the hospitals and the EDs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data sourced by Government-owned PHF Science showed that, in the week ending August 23, calls to Healthline were at their highest for three years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of them came from the Central region (Whanganui, Hawke\u2019s Bay, MidCentral, Wairarapa and wider Wellington).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing that we have the Healthline, because these people with respiratory illnesses<\/a> shouldn\u2019t be going to EDs and they shouldn\u2019t be going to the doctor without first checking,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole system is under a lot of pressure. Everyone is doing their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonville Health nurse and triage co-ordinator Tracey Linton said triage calls had \u201creally amped up\u201d over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting lots and lots of children with viral infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last week, it\u2019s just constant, because I do three days on the phone, so it\u2019s nearly every phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most parents were doing \u201cthe right thing\u201d and calling the clinic, rather than going straight to ED, Linton said.<\/p>\n

July and August were typically their busiest months, but things had \u201creally hit us\u201d this August, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s happened is Influenza A has changed things a little bit this year. Every year there\u2019s something, like the last few years it\u2019s been Covid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linton encouraged concerned adults to use Healthify, a self-care app for New Zealand-relevant health and medicine information.<\/p>\n

Uptake in four-in-one respiratory illness swabs<\/p>\n

Linton said clinic staff knew about the four-in-one rapid antigen test (RAT) and \u201cit would be so great if our clinic had them\u201d to save time during appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we get a lot of people wanting to come in for swabs, especially for strep throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur appointments are getting chewed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes said her pharmacy was selling out of the tests.<\/p>\n

They look and function like Covid-19 tests, using a single nasal swab, but can also detect influenza A or B, or RSV.<\/p>\n

\" Pharmacies in Whanganui have noticed an uptake in 4-in-1 flu-Covid-RSV rapid antigen tests as communities nationwide face a significant surge in winter illnesses. Photo \/ Noam M\u0101nuka Lazarus<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to get a special shipment in of the RAT tests. We\u2019ve sold out of three different types, and we\u2019re down to one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re desperately trying to get more in because people are being responsible, in terms of wearing masks, doing tests to see what they\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

A staff member at Platt\u2019s Pharmacy in Bulls, who asked not to be named, said the pharmacy first ordered the tests from a wholesaler about a year ago, and was now selling \u201ca lot\u201d.<\/p>\n

Central City Pharmacy owner Stacey Simpson also noticed an increase in sales in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut earlier we were still selling them more so than previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pharmacy 145 on Victoria had none in stock and was waiting for a shipment to arrive.<\/p>\n

Flu was more prevalent than in previous years, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing more people come in to purchase cold and flu medications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson encouraged people to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora<\/a> executive national clinical director Dr Richard Sullivan said people with non-urgent needs should go to pharmacies, Healthline and online general practices (GPs).<\/p>\n

People with winter illness who are concerned about their symptoms can get advice from Healthline on 0800 611 116, Practice Plus on 0800 7722 7587 or WAM on 0800 111 211.<\/p>\n

People can call the Whanganui Stop Smoking Service on 0800 200 249 for support from qualified staff with experience of quitting smoking.<\/p>\n

People in rural communities can contact Ka Ora Telecare for online triage on 0800 252 672.<\/p>\n

Noam M\u0101nuka Lazarus (Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua o Kaipara) is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An intermediate school student she treated had influenza A for nine days, she said. Healthcare staff and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[287203,58301,13216,6877,806,28167,1379,180765,69835,134,28292,4507,111,139,69,829,1435,4757,667,6921,1515,44561,287202,765,1883,4478],"class_list":["post-583436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-4in1","tag-acute","tag-antigen","tag-appointments","tag-as","tag-enters","tag-flu","tag-flulike","tag-gp","tag-health","tag-illnesses","tag-late","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prescriptions","tag-rapid","tag-rat","tag-sales","tag-spring","tag-surge","tag-swell","tag-swelled","tag-test","tag-whanganui","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}