‘Overloaded’
Enrolled patients outnumber GPS by more than 1000 to one
Te Whatu Ora Lakes district’s GPS are outnumbered by enrolled patients by an average of about 1000 to one and one doctor says there could be thousands more unenrolled patients around Rotorua.
There are an estimated average of 1000 enrolled patients per GP in the Te Whatu Ora Lakes District, recently released Ministry of Health data reveals.
The data, released at the end of January, records primary healthcare enrolments according to the patient’s district of residence and primary health organisation records.
In total, the data shows there are 114,290 people enrolled with GP practices in the Te Whatu Ora Lakes District, 829 patients higher than at the end of 2019.
According to Healthpoint records, there are 26 GP practices and 107 GPS across Mangakino, Rotorua, Taupo¯ and Tu¯rangi.
But Rotorua GP Dr Grace Malcolm told the Rotorua Daily Post there could be thousands in need of a GP who had not yet enrolled.
“We are overloaded. There are just not enough GPS,” Malcolm said.
Malcolm said practices were being “inundated” with the needs of patients, both enrolled and unenrolled. “It’s crazy and it’s a huge problem.”
Dr Tim Malloy, the chair of Genpro, an organisation that represents GPS, said the recommended level was 1200 patients per fulltime GP but he suspected the numbers were “seriously” higher than that.
“It’s probably closer to 1500 per GP at an estimate and in rural areas around Rotorua probably about 3000 patients per GP.”
Malloy said while the number of enrolled patients reported to the Ministry of Health was probably accurate, Healthpoint’s records of the number of doctors in each region depended on updates from individual practices.
“We don’t have time to update Healthpoint,” Malloy said.
Edgecumbe GP Dr Cecile de Groot said the important question to ask was how many patients there were per fulltime equivalent GP.
“In my experience, many if not most of the GPS are working 0.8 FTE or less, some only 0.2. Many are also involved in non-clinical work such as research or positions with the PHO and Te Whatu Ora.”
De Groot did not have accurate figures but estimated in the Eastern Bay of Plenty some GPS could be working with more than twice the recommended number of patients.
“We’ve lost 18 GPS in the last 14 months alone with only two or three new ones coming to our area.”
De Groot said a GP’S workload was becoming heavier.
“Not only are we needing to see more patients in the allotted time but patients are more complex and demanding than in the past, largely due to an ageing population, and also due to so many new treatments available for long-term conditions.”
On top of this, De Groot said GPS needed to deal with “unmanageable” inboxes of patient reports from different organisations, specialists and
Pressure on practices is immense. We are booking up to two weeks ahead, and are relying on nurses, nurse practitioners and health-care assistants to manage patient requests . . .
Dr Cecile de Groot