Low-cost GP scheme struggling

A Government scheme to provide cheaper visits to doctors throughout the central North Island is already struggling, less than a year after it was launched.

Two of the region's three primary health organisations claim they have not been given enough cash to do their job.

The three organisations - Te Kupenga A Kahu, Health Rotorua and Lake Taupo - were launched this year. The Government subsidises visits to each organisation, based on patient numbers.

But Te Kupenga A Kahu claims the formula the Government is using is flawed.

The organisation, which represents three Maori health providers, was set up on April 1 to provide a cheap service to about 7000 mainly Maori patients in Rotorua.

It was given about $38,000 in establishment funding by the Lakes District Health Board. But six months later, all the establishment funding has been spent.

There was not enough funding to establish a separate office for it so health provider Korowai Aroha has provided space in its own building in central Rotorua.

Korowai Aroha manager Ngaire Whata said while it was coping with population-based funding, it was unhappy about "carrying" the primary health organisation's other two, smaller, health providers.

Unless changes were made, Korowai Aroha's commitment to the organisation could be in doubt, she said.

"I want it to work but it won't until we get all the infrastructure right."

Taupo primary health organisation chairman Iain Loan said his organisation's funding was inadequate.

It was launched on January 1 and received about $60,000 in establishment funding to provide cheaper GP visits to more than 35,000 patients across Taupo, Turangi and Mangakino.

Mr Loan said while patients had benefited from cheaper GP visits, the organisation did not even have an office.

"We meet in a coffee bar," he said. Primary health organisations in smaller regions deserved the same management funding as those in larger areas like the Western Bay of Plenty,

The district's largest primary health organisation - Health Rotorua - received about $75,000 to get off the ground. Made up of 55 GPs, it slashed visit fees to no more than $19 for about 65,000 Rotorua residents from April 1.

Lakes District Health Board chief executive Cathy Cooney said the issues raised by the PHOs needed to be worked through by each of the providers.

- NZPA