Chronic shortage of doctors

Te Runanga O Ngati Ruanui say it’s time for the Taranaki District Health Board and the Midlands Primary Health Organisation to formulate a plan to reverse the chronic shortage of doctors.

South Taranaki has 26.9 full-time equivalent GPs, based on a 40-hour working week, per 100,000 people, 43.2 for the Stratford district and 67.6 for the New Plymouth district.

The national average is 69.8.

And more worryingly, according to a 2015 study by the Royal New Zealand College 41 per cent of GPs expect to retire by 2025.

“But instead of coming up with an innovative strategy, the DHB and Midlands only chose to seek assurances from us about our doctors when we were affected by the doctors shortage recently,” Te Runanga o Ngati Ruanui Kaiarataki Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said.

“While noting the current communications “we are here to support to you” up until that point they were nowhere to be seen, despite the fact we purchased their defunct community funded one-stop health shop in 2013.”

Ngarewa-Packer said it was only due to the hard work of the health centre’s staff that they have a “consistent set of doctors delivering consistent care.”

Our community is now served by Dr Christiane Schmidt, Dr Riegardt Meyer, Dr Murtaza Khanbhai, Dr Chris Bohm and Dr Jarrod Newell.

“For too long the TDHB have been bystanders who only intervene when it’s far too late.

“This is not good enough and clearly shows a lack of forward thinking by those we put in charge of our health system.

“They need to be proactive and work with healthcare providers to overcome this national problem.

“Otherwise, Taranaki will continue to stagger from problem to problem.”

Our health-care facility has grown consistently in the 20 years since establishment and more than doubled patient numbers to 6600 from 2013 and 2016.

‘‘We’re for Ngati Ruanui and the community, and it’s time we all came up with a strategy that works.”

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