Expanded Lower Hutt medical centre to cater for 'daylight hours'
Photo:
RNZ / Ruth Hill
A former birthing centre in Lower Hutt, which was controversially mothballed four years ago due to lack of funding, will house an expanded after-hours medical service.
Lower Hutt After-Hours Medical Centre - the only drop-in clinic for more than 100,000 Hutt Valley residents - is often forced to close its doors early to new patients, because it is unable to see everyone before 10pm closing time.
Manager Mark O'Connor said the shift to new premises at the
former Te Awakairangi Birthing Centre
at the end of July would help alleviate some of the pressure.
"The new clinic has 10 consultancy rooms, instead of the three-and-a-half we have now, and its waiting room is triple the size," he said. "Patients may still have to wait, but at least they won't be queuing in the wind and the rain, as they are now sometimes."
The centre had also received Government funding to extend its opening hours to "daylight hours" during the week.
Currently, its hours are limited to 5.30-10pm, Monday to Friday, and 8-10pm on weekends and public holidays. From late this year or early next year, it was planned to open from 8am every day.
"Until now, Hutt Valley has been the only metropolitan area without daytime urgent care, so that's a big change," he said. "We never had the facility before here.
"If you know our old building, we would never have been able to cope with that during the day, but with this new facility, it gives us that opportunity. We just have to resource it."
Recruitment of additional staff could be a challenge, but the attraction of a new clinic would help with that.
Lower Hutt After Hours Medical Centre is leaving its current cramped premises next month.
Photo:
RNZ / Ruth Hill
"We need to close at 10pm, because most of my doctors are working at practices during the day, so we can't keep them too long."
The new clinic was also upstairs from a radiology centre, which meant patients with suspected fractures would no longer need to go to Hutt Hospital's emergency department.
Frustrated patients have taken to social media to complain about the clinic closing early.
One woman - who was turned away last Friday, after trying to get an appointment with her own GP all week - said the doctor shortage was the biggest barrier.
"If they can fit more people into the premises, but they don't have more doctors to do the hours, then they're going to have the same problems."
A plan to turn the old Te Awakairangi Birthing Centre into a special care unit was developed when Labour was in power and was heavily supported by then-MP Chris Bishop.
The birthing centre, which was owned by a charitable trust, closed in 2021. Te Whatu Ora took over the facility and planned to open a first-of-its-kind transitional care unit for sick babies in 2023, but this never happened.
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