Rural patients 'at risk'

The pressure of work on rural GPs has become such that patients' safety is at risk and there is growing diffculty in attracting new doctors to country practices. Emma Bailey reports.

The safety of rural patients is being compromised by patchy after-hours services, a reliance on locums, and long waits to see a GP, a new health report warns.

South Canterbury rural doctors spoken to yesterday agreed there was strain on services, with doctors expected to work for long periods on call and one clinic using a registered nurse to cover every second weekend.

The New Zealand Institute of Rural Health has published a discussion document on the state of rural health in the hope the document will spark action from the Government.

The report describes the "fragile" state of rural health services, and says it is only a matter of time before there was a serious safety breach.

"Running services with reduced numbers of staff, high numbers of locums and under tight fiscal constraint increases the risk of clinical safety being compromised," the report said.

Temuka doctor Rodger Hilliker was on call over the weekend and said it was becoming increasingly difficult to attract doctors to rural areas due to the long hours of on-call work.

"I have young interns come and work with me and they can't believe the on-call hours. They think the hours are crazy and that in other countries it would be illegal.

"In Balclutha, doctors have just refused to do on-call hours on top of their weekly work and the hospital has had to step in and provide the service.

"So far the district health boards have not stepped up and helped solve the problem."

Dr Hilliker had been on call since Thursday night and would be until 8am this morning.

"It affects your home life and your sleep patterns and you're still expected to go back to work the next day as normal.

"There have been various working parties look at this issue but it needs to be addressed soon.

"It is bad enough in town covering the after hours and it is worse in the country."

Twizel doctor Bruce Eyers said a registered nurse was used to cover every second weekend to give the two part-time doctors who worked at the medical centre a break.

"It does mean that every second weekend we don't have medical cover.

"We are geographically isolated so we cannot combine with other areas to provide after-hours cover.

"Because of the situation people may have to accept there will be times when there is no medical cover."

Winter was normally quiet for after-hours services, he said, but the summer was extremely busy due to the influx of visitors.

New Zealand Institute of Rural Health chief executive Robyn Steed said the rural health system seemed to be regarded as a second-rate citizen compared with urban areas.

Issues facing the rural health sector were well known but there was no plan in place to address them, she said.

Rural health professionals wanted the Government to acknowledge the serious problems facing the sector and come up with money and solutions to address them, Ms Steed said.

- © Fairfax NZ News