A struggling GP practice was allegedly told by a Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora committee to set up a cafe inside the clinic to bring in extra cash.

In September, General Practice New Zealand surveyed primary health organisations (PHOs) that deliver GP services, with about 76% of them responding.

The results made for stark reading. More than 60% of PHOs had clinics in their network facing closures, 61% were reducing services, and 100% were restricting patient access in some way.

Among the reasons given were financial pressures and issues of burnout and retention with GPs.

In the survey, one practice revealed Te Whatu Ora’s fees review committee, which made independent recommendations about increases to GP fees, suggested one medical centre set up a cafe to ease financial pressures.

Andrew Swanson-Dobbs, chief executive of Dunedin-based WellSouth – the PHO for the clinic that got the cafe advice, told Checkpoint it was “silly advice”.

“We shouldn’t be advising practices to do things such as open a cafe.”

He said it was a “real struggle” at the moment though, with practices having sausage sizzles and asking patients to “pay one forward”.

Te Whatu Ora said the fees committee was independent, so essentially the suggestion was not from the health organisation.

- RNZ