Hopes new Pāpāmoa medical centre opening mid-October will help ease population pressure

The newly built Whitiora Medical Centre will open to the public on October 12. Photo / Andrew Warner

A new medical centre opening in Pāpāmoa next month already has about 100 people on its waitlist.

The centre is the latest in a series of medical facilities aimed at alleviating some of the health pressures of a fast-growing population expected to boom to more than 40,000 by 2028.

Whitiora Medical Centre will open on October 12 on the corner of The Boulevard and Harding Drive in Pāpāmoa East.

Its registration numbers, when combined with its sister Pāpāmoa Pines medical centres on Domain Rd and Palm Springs, were expected to grow to as much as 15,000.

The nearby Tara Road Medical Centre that was "bursting at the seams" was getting a $9 million extension and a new health hub was also planned as part of the planned billion-dollar The Sands Town Centre in Pāpāmoa East.

In March, the Bay of Plenty Times reported only one of five Pāpāmoa GP practices were taking new enrolments, compared to two-thirds in wider Tauranga and Western Bay.

The Whitiora Medical Centre features seven consulting rooms - six for GP services and one nurse treatment and clinical room.

It will include a built-in internal pod for respiratory patients, a pharmacy and a cafe. There will also be a minor surgery area and private ambulance bay.

The centre will have a health improvement practitioner and health coach - nationally funded services aimed at reducing barriers to access community-based mental health services.

Practice owners Pamela Sheahan, Dr Davitt Sheahan and Dr Jennifer Brodie. Photo / Supplied

Whitiora Medical Centre co-owner Pamela Sheahan, who also co-owns the Pāpāmoa Pines centres, said the new centre would provide "much needed additional healthcare services".

"We have noted access to healthcare has become more difficult over the last number of years and developing a new purpose-built medical centre will hopefully allow us to alleviate some of the health pressures and access issues that are currently experienced locally.

"The growth rate in Pāpāmoa is huge so this will really help to serve the community."

Practice manager Glenn Dunkerley said the centre was also working to remove health inequalities by understanding more about the needs of communities they were not currently reaching.

"This might include running one clinic until 7pm once a month or opening on a Saturday morning so that access to a GP is more convenient."

Inclusivity was "top of mind" with plans to display bilingual signage and offering staff the chance to take a sign language course, he said.

A media statement said the current waitlist was 100 patients at the new centre and registration numbers between Whitiora Medical Centre and Pāpāmoa Pines were expected to grow from between 10,000 and 11,000 to 15,000.

Whitiora Medical Centre features seven consulting rooms - six for GP services and one nurse treatment and clinical room. Photo / Andrew Warner

Dunkerley said the centre was in the final stages of admin and nursing recruitment, and a new doctor was hopefully planned for next year.

He said the new health improvement practitioner and health coach services were free of charge and did not require referral criteria.

"Patients can see a health improvement practitioner within the Whitiora Medical Centre and a health coach in the community, at their homes, at the practice, and anywhere in between."

The services were already running at the Domain Rd and Palm Springs sites and could suit people struggling with mental health issues, feeling unmotivated or wanting to lose weight.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller said he welcomed the new medical hub to the "fast-growing community" of Pāpāmoa.

"Any additional provision of pharmacy and GP care is welcome."

However, Muller still wanted to see funding for after-hours ACC-accredited care in Pāpāmoa. A community-led petition for this was presented to Parliament in 2019.

In April 2021, Tara Road Medical Centre developer Daryl Scott said he was extending its $7m medical hub to include a large gym, radiologist, dentist/orthodontist and boutique bread shop. It would be a $9m build.

In November 2020, the Bay of Plenty Times reported Pāpāmoa's population was predicted to increase by more than 11,000 by 2028.

At the time, Tauranga City Council projections showed Tauranga's population was expected to reach 165,130 by 2028, up from 140,800 in June 2018.

Pāpāmoa would see the most growth of any suburb, rising from 29,018 to 40,339 - making up 47 per cent of the city's growth over the time period.

In June 2021, details of a new billion-dollar town centre planned for Pāpāmoa East was revealed. It would be four times the size of Bayfair Shopping Centre and surrounded by 11,000 new homes.

The Sands Town Centre would be mixed-use, with stage one including a $100m aquatic centre with a 50m Olympic-sized pool, a large health hub and retirement village.

In June 2022, the first major tenant was revealed as Foodstuffs' New World. It was expected to create about 180 new jobs in the area.

Construction of the supermarket would start in the final three months of this year and it was expected to be open by Christmas 2024.