Rural doctors fear impact of Air NZ route cuts

RURAL doctors fear that Air New Zealand’s decision to cut services to some centres will deter young doctors from taking up jobs in isolated regions, and limit visits by specialists.

Last week the airline said it was losing $1 million a month on routes served by its 19-seat Beech 1900D aircraft and would end services to Kaitaia, Whakatane and Westport from April. It will also stop flying to some other regional towns and cities from February 2016.

Rural General Practice Network chairman Jo Scott-Jones said the decision to suspend some routes and reduce services to others would impact the ‘‘liveability’’ of regional New Zealand, where recruiting and retaining health professionals was a continuing struggle.

Scott-Jones, a general practitioner in Opotiki, said the route cuts would make it difficult for regions such as the West Coast to attract short-term locum doctors.

Rural doctors’ ability to advance their training would also be affected because it would be harder to attend health-related meetings, seminars and conferences in larger centres, he said.

Network board members and rural health leaders often had to meet ministers and health officials in Wellington. Under Air NZ’s proposed cuts, those meetings would become more difficult.

Rural practitioners offered a different perspective on health governance. ‘‘The national service learns a lot from the way rural services adapt from poor resourcing.’’

The network would like to discuss with the Government and Air NZ the decision to change regional services, Scott-Jones said.

Rose Lightfoot, chief executive of Te Tai Tokerau Primary Health Organisation, which oversees and supports 16 rural general practices in Northland, said the cuts marginalised practitioners in the region and would affect all health services.