Rural medical practices in the Wanganui area will lose significant funding if district health boards and the Ministry of Health go ahead with a reclassification of their rural practices.
The changes to the Rural Ranking Scale would mean practices within 35km of the nearest hospital would lose their rural ranking and their rural funding.
Bulls Medical Centre, less than 35km from Palmerston North Hospital, is one of the practices that would be affected by the change.
Bulls Medical Centre doctor Ken Young said there had been discussion but the practice was still waiting for the official announcement.
"We're just going to have to wait and see."
If the change went ahead, the practice would suffer the reduction in funding, Dr Young said.
"It would adversely affect the practice as far as income is concerned."
However, they were not going to worry about the consequences until they knew what was happening, he said. "We're busy carrying on with our day-to-day work."
New Zealand Rural General Practice Network chairman Dr Jo Scott Jones said they had come to the end of a complex process.
Practices in "grey areas" should know what the changes would be in about a month's time.
The scale had been under review for at least five years.
But the network was not yet in a position to comment on the financial effects on practices.
Nationally, the overall amount of rural funding would stay the same.
Ministry of Health primary health care implementation programme manager Danny Wu said the Ministry had received the network's suggestions and would review them over the coming weeks.
However, details about the impacts on individual practices were not available until reviews had taken place.
Stewart Street Surgery in Marton, which could also be affected by the changes, declined to comment.
Whanganui Regional Primary Health Organisation also refused to comment until they had heard what the changes would be and how it would affect them.
Rural practices may have funding cut
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