The network has been promoting options such as the virtual doctor service Practice Plus, Healthline, and for patients to contact GPs to book an urgent appointment to alleviate waiting times.
July, August, and September were typically tough months for winter illness, MacDonald said.
“This isn’t anything different to what we’ve seen before - it’s just that when your workforce falls over, you end up with an inability to manage.
“We’re encouraging people to ring their GPs and describe what their condition is because if it’s urgent most practices offer an urgent service.”
Illness among doctors was putting additional strain on the health system.
“It causes strife in trying to get cover.”
Waits in general practice could be lengthy, she said.
“What we are seeing is a lot of cases where these people would normally go to general practice and be managed perfectly adequately there, but they can’t get in.”
Primary care was experiencing difficulties around workforce recruitment with unfilled clinical positions.
“What I think compounds it is when the workforce is tight, so workforce recruitment of doctors and nurse practitioners is quite tight so some of the practices might have vacancies.
“That is what primary care is experiencing right now and it certainly doesn’t help.”
MacDonald said that in some accident and medical cases, it had been a few hours of waiting for patients.
“It’s a flow-on effect because if you can’t get into your general practice and you’re concerned then you’ll go to [accident and medical], but maybe if you tried some of the other options you wouldn’t need to.
“Whereas there are people who have fractures or urgent things that need to be seen and then they have to wait.”
It was important to halt the spread of winter illness in waiting areas at Whanganui Accident and Medical and the hospital by patients staying home if possible.
People should think about washing their hands and using a mask when they had coughs and colds this winter, she said.
Whanganui Group Director Operations Kath Fraser-Chapple said Whanganui Hospital, like most facilities around the country, was seeing high numbers of presentations to the emergency department with winter illnesses.
”This has increased wait times in the emergency department as we prioritise caring for the most at-risk patients,” she said.
”Respiratory illness and injuries remain the highest proportion of presentations as with most winter months.
”Chapple said if additional staff were needed in the emergency department and acute services, staff may be redeployed from other areas of the hospital or other services may be reprioritised.”As always, when faced with high demand, our front-line staff continue to provide excellent, safe care to our patients, whānau and community.”
People experiencing winter illness who are concerned with their symptoms can get advice by contacting Healthline on 0800 611 116, Practice Plus on 0800 7722 7587 and WAM on 0800 111 211.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
