Late-night GPs cry unfair over workload

Palmerston North GPs covering weekend and evening rosters at City Doctors have had enough of being the only ones working while the rest of the region's GPs take time off.

Locum Liam O'Leary, who led the establishment of the centre to relieve after-hours calls for the city's aging doctors, said the workload was hectic because other doctors were "bludging" and not pulling their weight.

"Their patients are disadvantaged because they don't get cover from their regular doctor, and our patients suffer because they have to wait longer."

The city's other accident and medical centre, The Palms, closes at 7pm on week nights, and earlier at weekends. It provides a phone contact for its patients and those from Feilding which fulfills its contractual obligations until 10pm, when Palmerston North Hospital's emergency department takes after-hours calls.

But many of its patients skip the phone call and simply turn up at City Doctors.

"People aren't stupid. If they have a sick kid they know the only place with a pharmacy open and doctors on site is here," he said.

"It's common sense to come here. It's not the patients' fault."

Dr O'Leary said City Doctors was busy enough covering members' own patients, days and evenings, without taking the extras from other practices as well.

It had become the de facto after-hours service for the whole region, with demands it wasn't set up to cope with.

City Doctors' chairman Edwin van der Merwe agreed.

"We are the only doctors who provide proper after-hours care and we are getting a bit tired of it.

"We feel other doctors in the region cannot just sit back and have a good lifestyle – not working in evenings or nights – while we provide the care they are supposed to deliver to their patients."

The MidCentral District Health Board, through the Central Primary Health Organisation, has offered City Doctors a contract and extra money to recognise its role as the region's after-hours service.

But Dr van der Merwe said money wasn't the point.

"It's that people are fed up with working the extra hours. We are all getting older – the average age is closer to 60 than 50. It's about the workload."

City Doctors has 35 regulars on its evening and weekend rosters, who do about three sessions there a month on top of running their own daytime surgeries.

Their annual meeting this week asked its board to negotiate with doctors from The Palms and other practices to take a turn on the roster.

Radius Medical Solutions spokeswoman Susan Jenkins said negotiations were under way about alternative after-hours arrangements, but didn't want to comment further until discussions were finalised.

Central PHO chief executive officer Cathy O'Malley said providing after-hours medical care was a national problem.

"It is very difficult to staff as the workforce willing to work all day and be on call nights and weekends is getting smaller."

- © Fairfax NZ News