WHAT ARE WE DOING?
From today, WFD will transition back towards a more traditional GP model of providing care for patients; so that we are able to offer appointments in 1-2 weeks. This means we will have less capacity to see same day patients.
An experienced nurse will triage patients seeking urgent (same day) appointments; and if we are not able to provide an appointment in an appropriate time frame for the urgency of their symptoms, the patient will be given appropriate advice and/or instructions.
We will still be able to see 10 urgent (same day) patients per day, but after we have reached our capacity we will actively triage and refer patients considered urgent appropriately to other urgent care providers ( Accident & Healthcare 2nd Ave Tauranga, Anglesea Clinic Hamilton, Victoria Clinic Hamilton,) or emergency care providers (Thames Hospital ED, Tauranga Hospital ED or to call 111 if we feel your symptoms warrant urgent attention)
We realise our patient will miss the convenience of the urgent clinic, however we hope that by freeing up more clinic appts we will have the ability to see more patients within shorter timeframes and this will be better for our patients overall.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
At the core of general practice is long term health management in the community. We have always tried to manage acute presentations of illness, but currently the resorces required to provide this urgent clinic is compromising our ability to provide our usual clinci appointments.
We are making this change now because we have an unacceptable wait time for paitents in our current situation of limited GP's and a this is causing significant distress to both patients and us to not be able to provide the best care to our community.
We are still recruiting for a fourth doctor, and for locum cover for the 12 weeks over summer, and if we don’t so something now the waiting time for booked appointments will keep getting longer.
In making this change we are coming into line with the majority of other GP practices in NZ. In compared to most practices we are still offering more urgent (same day) appointments than most.
WHY IS GENERAL PRACTICE IN CRISIS?
There is a global shortage of doctors and nurses, it is particularly difficult to recruit to rural locations. We are actively recruiting and hope to secure a placement in 2023