A Pāpāmoa GP clinic that serves 6000 patients is closing and an owner says it is “absolutely not viable anymore” due to the GP shortage and government underfunding. 

Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on Domain Rd will close in mid-April after about 15 years in the fast-growing suburb. 

Its 6000 patients will now be served at the business’ newer clinic in Pāpāmoa East, Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on The Boulevard, which already serves about 4000 patients. 

In a message to patients on Tuesday, Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Group said government funding of general practice was in “a very perilous state”. 

This, combined with a lack of doctors and “prevailing economic conditions”, had a “huge impact” on the business’ ability to run two fully-staffed, large-scale medical centres, the email said. 

“After considerable reflection and exhaustive exploration of ways to recruit more GPs … we have made the decision to embark on a downsizing of our business to ensure our sustainability and our viability long term.” 

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora has acknowledged the pressures on the GP workforce and says it has taken “some steps” to improve the way it funds general practice. 

It is addressing the GP shortage through targeted international recruitment and domestic training. 

Running two GP clinics no longer ‘viable’ 

Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre’s co-owner and partner Pamela Sheahan told the Bay of Plenty Times on Wednesday the closure was a “very difficult” decision and the business had “exhaustively” tried to find more staff after losing “quite a few GPs”. 

She said about six GPs had left in the past 12-24 months. The business now has eight GPs and about 30 staff overall. 

Sheahan spoke out last year about “significant” workplace staff shortages and public abuse towards clinical and administrative staff reaching “an all-time high”. 

Sheahan said government funding for GPs through the capitation model was “not fit for purpose” and needed to be “significantly overhauled”. 

Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre on Domain Rd will close from mid-April. Photo / Alex Cairns 

Capitation-based payments are based on the numbers of people enrolled with individual general practices who belong to a primary health organisation population, the Te Whatu Ora website says. 

“We’re paid for four visits per year per patient. If you get children and older people, they come to the GP far more than four times … sometimes up to 20 times a year,” Sheahan said. 

“We just don’t get paid for any of those visits so we have to claw that back by charging patients over the counter the additional fees.” 

Sheahan said the only way the business made money – apart from government funding – was charging patients. 

However “even that’s controlled by the Government”. 

“Running the two businesses with less GPs is … absolutely not viable anymore.” 

Sheahan said the Domain Rd clinic had been open since 2009 and The Boulevard site for about 16 months. 

The Pāpāmoa Pines clinic on Domain Rd serves about 6000 patients. Photo / George Novak 

The business took over the tenancy agreement for The Boulevard clinic before the Covid-19 pandemic when “we had heaps of GPs”. 

However, since the pandemic, “people just started walking away” as they looked for “a better lifestyle balance” and worked in different areas in the medical sector. 

“We even had a GP walk away from medicine completely.” 

Sheahan said the only impact of the Domain Rd closure on some patients would be extra travel time to The Boulevard clinic. 

Feedback on the closure had been supportive and she thanked patients for their “positive understanding”. 

Her co-owner and husband Dr Davitt Sheahan said they could not comment on whether there would be any jobs lost in the downsizing. 

GP funding system ‘has limitations’ - Te Whatu Ora 

In a statement, Te Whatu Ora living well director Martin Hefford said it recognised general practice was the “cornerstone” of the health system, providing vital care to patients. 

“We acknowledge that the current capitation funding system for general practice has limitations, as it does not include important factors such as socioeconomic status or ethnicity.” 

Hefford said Health NZ acknowledged the pressures on the GP workforce and was addressing this through targeted international recruitment and domestic training. 

He said Health NZ had taken “some steps” to improve the way it funded general practice capability and capacity. 

Funding for all primary and community health services, including general practice, increased by 5 per cent from July 1 last year he said. 

Hefford said an equity adjustment to capitation had been implemented to lift funding for Māori and Pacific-owned general practices, and those general practices with an enrolled population of at least 50 per cent Māori and/or Pacific, by a total of $24.4m in 2023/24. 

He said Health NZ was also adding more GP and nurse practitioner training placements and supported introducing new workforces into primary care through initiatives such as the comprehensive primary and community care teams. 

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.