Te Whata Ora is operating the Kenepuru Community Hospital 24/7, but had faced challenges to find suitably qualified doctors to staff the overnight shifts. Photo: Google Maps
A telehealth company has signed contracts to help provide afterhours care in Porirua's Hospital due to staff shortages.
It was reported in April that health officials had considered replacing the overnight doctor at Kenepuru Community Hospital's accident and medical centre with a telehealth service.
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora has confirmed it has contracted the company Emergency Consult to provide a telehealth service on occasions when they are not able to fill the overnight roster and have a doctor onsite between 10pm and 8am.
It would only be offered to patients if it was clinically appropriate, it only applies to the accident and medical clinic not the wider hospital, and is optional for patients.
The health agency said it had not had to use the service yet, but the contracts were only signed in recent weeks.
Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley group director operations Jamie Duncan said it continued to operate the clinic 24/7, but had faced challenges to find suitably qualified doctors to staff the overnight shifts.
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Duncan said staff had received training to enable them to support people to use this service.
Emergency consult engagement director Dr John Bonning said telehealth had been around for a long time, but it had received a boost since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bonning said they had been able to treat about 80 percent of people fully through their services when they had been used, with 20 percent having needed to be referred to another hospital or onsite staff.
He said nurses in its organisation go to the hospital they support in order to help train staff how to use their services.
RNZ put questions about whether the telehealth change was concerning to Health Minister Shane Reti, but a spokesperson said it was an operational decision for Health New Zealand.
"The minister doesn't have anything more to add."
Local MP Barbara Edmonds said Kenepuru Hospital served more than 120,000 people, so telehealth should not be used unless it was absolutely urgent.
Edmonds said the situation was not sufficient, because a sustainable model for the afterhours clinic had not been found.
She said the community had told her that they needed the clinic needed to stay open, because going to Wellington Hospital was not a good enough solution.
"If you've got a child whose having an asthma attack or needs to see someone quickly Kenepuru can be life or death for them."
General Practice of New Zealand chair Dr Bryan Betty told RNZ that telehealth had a role when there were significant staffing shortages.
"These types of responses are there to I suppose fill the gap which is important that we do have things in place to do that as long as it is done safely."
Betty said it was not a replacement for face-to-face visits with a doctor or a GP.
How telehealth works
- People coming in are triaged by a nurse as normal
- If a telehealth consultation is clinically appropriate for their needs, they will be asked if they would like one
- If they take up the telehealth consultation, a nurse will take them to a computer within the medical centre and assist them to access the consultation.
